Stakeholders at a forum organized in Bongo in the Upper East Region have earmarked a number of strategies aimed at reducing the spate of teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions in the area.
Girls in the 13 districts of the Region often become pregnant whilst in basic and senior high schools hence affecting their education. The Bongo and the Builsa North and Builsa South districts are most hit by the phenomenon.
To confront the issue, Pagba Saha Foundation, with sponsorship from STAR-Ghana, through a programme dubbed ?TV series and Community Engagement in the three Northern Regions on Reproductive Health and Maternal Mortality?, on Friday organized a stakeholders forum in Bongo.
The forum brought together the Paramount Chiefs of the Bongo Traditional Area, his sub chiefs and elders, Queen Mothers, health authorities, assembly members, parents, school children and the National Commission for Civic Education to brainstorm on how to tackle the menace.
The Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, Naba Baba Salifu Baba Aleemyaruum, who expressed worry about the trend of teenage pregnancies among girls particularly those in schools pledged to liaise with the district assembly to enact bylaws banning spinning during funerals.
On the unsafe abortion, the Paramount Chief noted that most of the girls after becoming pregnant resort to unorthodox means of abortions such as drinking of mixed concoctions and the use of ?blue for washing?.
He noted that such tendencies apart from affecting the education of the girls involved could destroy the uterus of the girls rendering them completely barren, and asked parents to ensure that such girls were made to deliver instead of resorting to the use of the unorthodox methods.
Naba Aleemyarum further stressed the need for the censorship of profane films on the television stations including profane music since they contributed to the phenomenon.
Madam Margaret Kugre, Principal Midwifery Officer in charge of the Bongo Health Facility, said most pregnant girls preferred going to the drug store to buy what she called ? Cytotec tablets? to cause abortion only to be rushed to the Facility in a coma.
She appealed to parents not to hesitate to bring their daughters to the facility for counseling.
The Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Broadcasting Cooperation, Mrs Asibi Bangu Ekella, who entreated parents to provide the needs of their daughters urged parents and teachers not to shy away from sex education and blamed the problem partly on that.
Haji Sawuratu Alhassan, Chief Executive Officer of Pagba Saha Foundation, said reproductive health and maternal mortality including teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortion were among the major issues confronting the three Northern Regions.
Haji Sawuratu Alhassan who is also the Hostess of Pagba Saha, a Dagbani Programme on GTV , explained that it was against this background that the Foundation over the years had taken it upon itself to organize series of programmes to help improve the situation.
GNA
