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Stakeholders must jointly tackle Tema Manhean’s high adolescent pregnancy rate

By
Laudia Sawer

Tema, Oct 23, GNA –
Stakeholders have been urged to work together to significantly reduce the high
adolescent pregnancy rate in the fishing community of Tema Manhean.

Statistics from the
Tema Health Directorate indicate that the densely populated area has a high
record of adolescent pregnancy despite efforts by adolescent health providers
to drastically reduce it.

A total of 177
teenage pregnancies had been recorded from the area at the Tema Manhean Clinic
for antenatal for the first three-quarters of 2019.

Making the appeal
during a review meeting of adolescent health friendly providers in the Tema
Metropolis, care givers at the Tema Manhean adolescent corner revealed that
without a consented effort from all stakeholders it would be difficult to
achieve the required results.

They observed that
the causes for the high teenage pregnancy in the area could be grouped under
four thematic areas: community, individual, religious and health provision.

Under the community
factors, they indicated that lack of parental care, early marriage, poverty and
single parenting was prevalent in the area explaining that adolescents who
passed teenage-hood without giving birth were branded barren while those who
were poor engaged in transactional sex 
to care for themselves.

They revealed that
there were a lot of brothels in Tema Newtown where adolescents engaged in child
prostitution and solicit for clients and curb crawlers and appealed to the
Ghana Police Service and the Tema Traditional Council (TTC) to clear the area
of such activities.

They also stated
that there was lack of sex education from parents making most of the
adolescents fall for peer pressure as their friends lure them into it with the
excuse that they would not function well when they abstain.

According to them,
activities such as school parties provided a fertile ground for sexual
engagements as they mentioned for instance that “a recent one dubbed, ‘drop
that uniform bash’ had twerking, free shisha, and light off sessions”.

Under the religious
factors, the health providers observe that churches in the area which numbered
about 7,000 saw it as a taboo to educate the youth on sex as they believed that
teaching them about it would pushed them into practicing it.

They therefore
appealed to the Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate to liaise with
stakeholders, especially religious leaders, the traditional council, schools
and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly to help formulate a sustainable solution to
the high teenage pregnancy rate in the area.

GNA

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