Youth SpeakUP to Discuss Teenage Pregnancy this Saturday 10th

By -
Hopin Academy and its partners; RUMNET, YEFL and Ghana Friends in Denmark have launched the Youth Speak UP project. The project focuses mainly on youth in some four deprived districts of Tamale, Northern Ghana; Kumbungu, Savelugu, Saboba and Karaga. Youth Speak Up will be holding both offline and online discussions this Saturday 10th September 2016 on how to curb Teenage Pregnancy in the identified districts. Teenage pregnancy is defined as an unintended pregnancy during adolescence. A female teenager can be pregnant as early as age 12 or 13, although it is usually 14 or older. In Ghana, females represent 51.2 per cent of the entire population of almost 25 million whereas adolescents represent 22.4 per cent of the total population. The rates of teenage pregnancy in Ghana are high; of all births registered in the country in 2014, 30 per cent were by adolescents, and 14 per cent of adolescents aged between 15 and 19 years had begun childbearing.


Regional assessment of teenage pregnancy in Ghana shows that the Upper East, Volta, Brong Ahafo, Central and Eastern regions have the highest regional rates of 14 per cent and above between of 2012 and 2014. Of these regions the Upper East Region has the highest national prevalence rate of teenage pregnancy – 15 per cent. The Northern Region has the lowest prevalence rate of 4.4 per cent and is followed by Greater Accra with 6.6 per cent.


Last Saturday night, 27th, saw active change makers and counselors at Hopin Academy, the Youth Speakup night saw the likes of Miss Blessilla , Maccarthy Lomotey, Ruka Yaro, Mrs Hikmat Baba Dua, Carole Donkers, Mr Sofo, Mr Mash, Mr Mustapha, Zakaria Abdul Hakim Cisse, Clement Boateng, representatives of CHRAJ, and partner radio stations of the project and community based journalist and many many others, they gathered to discuss Violence against Women. Violence against women and girls has many manifestations, including forms that may be more common in specific settings, countries and regions. Violence against women manifests itself as physical, sexual, emotional and economic.


Further analysis of the data between 2012 and 2014 indicates that Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions had an increasing trend of teenage pregnancy rates over the last three years. It is significant to note also that no region has shown an annual decreasing trend in the prevalence of teenage pregnancy.Regionally, Greater Accra has one of the lowest prevalence rate of teenage pregnancy and the top three districts that have the highest prevalence rate are Accra Metro, Kumasi Metro and Techiman municipality. The top districts that recorded the highest prevalence rates of teenage pregnancy are all in urban centres. In all regions in Ghana, females experience their first sexual encounter earlier than their male counterparts. Research shows that there is a direct link between levels of education and the age of the first sexual intercourse experience. The higher the educational level of the adolescent, the less likely they are to engage in sexual intercourse at an early age. There had also been significant rise in the percentage of young adolescents who had a child or were pregnant between the years of 2008 and 2014. These percentages describe the escalation of teenage pregnancy percentages with the increase in age.

To address the high rates of teenage pregnancy in Ghana, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection convened a nationwide stakeholders meeting on December 7, 2015, to assess the current level, to conduct a situation analysis and to strategise for sustained national sensitisation. In addition, the ministry complied a Mapping Report on Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana, focusing on the key strategies in addressing it.


An overview of teenage pregnancy in Ghana including its causes and effects highlighted the importance of understanding the context surrounding teenage pregnancy and the implications and concerns arising in Ghana. Linkages to health, educational levels, wealth categories and the inter-generational transfer of poverty, were made throughout the presentation.

Moving forward, governmental attention must be focused on information and services to support young women through comprehensive sexuality education and re-integration strategies for young mothers.


The Ghana Health Service has focused on education as its main strategy in addressing sexual and reproductive issues in Ghana and with services predominately focused on the current needs of young unmarried women

Source; www.graphic.com.gh/Sanatu Zambang

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Professor Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg on PORK Biological Therapy

By -
Image
In World War II, soldiers in North Africa were taken ill in ever increasing numbers. They were suffering from abscesses of the lower part of the leg called “tropical ulcers”. These ulcerations left the soldiers unfit to fight and necessitated lengthy hospital confinement, often requiring their removal to more temperate climates. Every possible form of treatment as well as chemical therapy was exhausted without positive results. It was then suggested that these leg ulcers could possibly be connected with the soldiers’ eating habits, as the natives showed no signs of this disease. Rations to the soldiers were then based on a diet free from pork, much like that eaten by the Islamic population. This resulted in the immediate relief of the leg ulcer syndrome. During the lean years of the war and especially those after the war, the health of the population was, practically speaking, good. Few people could
Read more

11 Ghanaian Tamale Base Musicians Who Deserve Attention

By -
Image
Northern region capital has seen tremendous growth in its music scene this year, one can boldly say the music scene has grown faster this year than expected. Fancy Gadam and Maccasio have been the talk about artiste over the past few months, both artiste have the largest fan base in the region, which of cause over shadows some classic, talented and mind blowing artiste in the region.  These artiste are facing the hype over talent virus, Sanatu Zambang might not have the resources to cure this epidemic, but we sure can do our research and share with the public our findings. Our list also considers the impact these artiste have made throughout 2016.  Here are the TOP 11 artiste from the northern region, Tamale. Some of these struggling artiste have managed to achieve local recognition, whiles the others have had worldwide recognition without a huge fan based and with less airtime on radio and television. One can’t imagine the kind of music, v
Read more

International Ghanaian Model Victoria Michaels

By -
Image
Born into the blissful world of beauty   International Ghanaian Model Victoria Michaels i s good at what she does,  She backs all these achievements with a solid academic background in Business Management and Communication as she holds a Diploma in Communication Studies from the Ghana Institute of Journalism and a Bachelor of Science Degree from Central University Ghana. A communicator per excellence, she leverages on a multifaceted experience gained from practice in PR, Marketing/Brand Communication, and Banking , Victoria has used her management skills to run the successful VM Consult, a company she founded a few years ago. Victoria began her career at the age of 19 when she won as a first Runner up for the Miss Francophone Ghana Beauty Pageant. Participated as a runway model in AU Summit GOLD Show, BBC Fashion Show, Dubai Fashion Week,Africa Fashion Week London and Nigeria, FAME Nigeria, FIMA International Fashion Show, Dark & Lovely Fashion Show. Victoria has also been
Read more