Professor Akwasi Kumi-Kyereme, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Cape Coast, has called on government, to look to address and tackle challenges and barriers relating to Adolescent Reproductive Health (AHR) in the country.
Speaking during a capacity building workshop on Adolescent Reproductive Health issues, Prof Kumi-Kyereme made this call where he stated that, although some significant impact had been made with respect to addressing adolescent reproductive health issues, more needed to be done to help them make informed and better life choices.
With close to one thousand adolescents, drawn from the Central Region who participated in the workshop, Prof Kumi-Kyereme said they constituted majority of the world’s population and as such their issues ought to be viewed critically.
He also charged stakeholders, Non- Governmental Organisations and other agencies to put in more effort and not relent in advocating in the area of adolescent reproductive health.
Also speaking during the workshop, Dr Theresah Addai-Mununkum, Coordinator for Advocacy and Research at CEGRAD, said the event formed part of the Centre’s outreach programmes and social responsibility.
She said the immediate environment made it necessary to help indigenes on ways they could relate and negotiate their relationship with colleagues, roommates, and course mates among others.
“It is also in response to addressing sexual and gender-based violence and adolescent pregnancy facing communities in the Central Region.”
Dr Addai-Mununkum further stated that, the facilitator approach had been adopted to make participants relate better and freely share their experiences.
The third speaker for the workshop, Mrs Thywil Eyra Kpe, the Acting National Director for the Department of Gender, also urged participants to make healthy choices, especially about their reproductive health, which constituted a vital part of their life and general safety.
The workshop was organised by the Centre for Gender Research Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) with support from the United Nations Population Fund, the Central Regional Coordinating Council, and the Department of Gender.
It was under the Camp Life Titbit Programme, a flagship programme introduced in 2017 by CEGRAD to train and assist fresh university students on various topics that would help them build healthy relationships in and around campus.
Participants were schooled on decisions on values, gender relations, understanding consent and sexual harassment, home and campus living, reproductive health and digital technology and safety issues.
They included first year university students, senior high school leavers who were set for tertiary education and needed to be efficiently prepared for life in the university, as well as junior high school leavers.
According to United Nations Population Fund (UNDP), millions of young people around the world, the onset of adolescence brings not only changes to their bodies but also new vulnerabilities to human rights abuses, particularly in the arenas of sexuality, marriage and childbearing.
Yet too many young people face barriers to reproductive health information and care and even those able to find accurate information about their health and rights may be unable to access the services needed to protect their health.
The UNDP as a result have called for Adolescents sexual and reproductive health to be supported through the provision of access to comprehensive sexuality education; services to prevent, diagnose and treat STIs; and counselling on family planning and also empowering young people to know and exercise their rights including the right to delay marriage and the right to refuse unwanted sexual advances.
