
The Ada West District in the Greater Accra region last year recorded 357 teenage pregnancy cases, with a good number being girls aged between 10 and 14.
The district in 2020 also recorded 317 teenage pregnancies aged between 10 and 19 as against 372 cases in 2019 with the same age group.
On abortion, the district in 2021 recorded seven cases among girls aged 10 to 19 years as against 18 abortion cases in 2020 with the same age group, whilst the district recorded 11 cases in 2019 among girls aged 15 to 19.
Lack of information on sexual reproductive health is believed to be the major cause of this trend which causes many adolescent girls to get pregnant and drop out of school with a host of them pushed into early marriages and virtually truncating their future aspirations.
Although the Education Policy in Ghana allows girls to return to school after giving birth, some of the girls do not go back to school.
Addressing the issue
To help save the situation, Indigenous Women Empowerment Network (IWEN Ghana), an indigenous women’s right organisation, has launched an initiative to help improve access to quality education and sexual reproductive health services by girls via social accountability.
The six months project is being supported by Plan International while Global Affairs Canada will help empower indigenous girls especially those with disabilities to realise their full potential, worth and strength through socio-economic empowerment and advocacy.
At a Stakeholders forum to officially launch the project at Sege, the district capital, the Executive Secretary of IWEN Ghana, Celestina Andoh, said the gender power imbalances, socio-cultural attitudes among men and women about sexuality and relationships, poverty and survival issues make women and girls vulnerable, have increased the vulnerability of girls to sexual abuse and contraction of HIV/AIDS.
According to her, gender-based violence is mostly perpetrated by both boys and men, adding that raising awareness of gender-based violence among this group of people will make them more aware of these practices and cause attitudinal and behavioral change.
Change agents
“Men and boys who are more knowledgeable on issues of gender- based violence will be identified and be enlisted as champions of change”, she said.
These champions of change/change agents, according to her, will be involved in training their compatriots on issues of violence against girls as well as issues of sexual reproductive health.
In a speech, the Planning officer of the Ada West District Assembly, Stella Kpondo, said the assembly is doing everything possible to make education more accessible to girls as well as improve access to sexual and reproductive health services.
She called for support from all stakeholders to ensure that girls are in schools and also provide the adolescents girls with accurate and timely information on their sexual and reproductive health.