Promote reproductive health education among adolescents – Youth Parliament urges stakeholders

Rt Hon James Baba Anabiga in a photo with stakeholders

The Upper West Regional Youth Parliament has called on parents, clergy, traditional authorities and other stakeholders to promote sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education among adolescents in their communities.

It said that adolescents should be provided with adequate knowledge of their sexual and reproductive health so that they can make informed decisions about their lives.

Speaking at a meeting with stakeholders on April 24, 2024 in Funsi, the Wa East District capital, the Chairman of the Youth Parliament, Rt Hon James Baba Anabiga, said various stakeholders have an important role to play in educating adolescents about their sexual and reproductive health.

The stakeholder engagement, supported by Plan International Ghana, was part of the Youth Parliament initiatives to reduce teenage pregnancies and associated reproductive health issues among youth, especially girls in Wa East District.

“And this problem needs a multi-dimensional approach to be addressed and that is why we are involving diverse stakeholder groups and different approaches. Everyone has a role to play in this matter: parents, chiefs and traditional leaders, teachers, health workers, imams and preachers, everyone here, including the adolescents themselves,” he said.

He urged parents to normalize talking to their children about their sexual and reproductive health and not criminalize it, causing the children to mislearn from their peers and other people.

He said it is more dangerous for children to learn about their sexual and reproductive lives from other people or peers because most parents consider this ungodly and do not want to talk to children about their sexual health.

“The danger is that if parents refuse to talk to their children about sex, these children will certainly learn, not in the right way but in the wrong way. And if they learn the wrong way, that’s where the problem starts,” he says. declared.

Rt Hon Anabaiga also called on traditional authorities to try to promote SRH in their gatherings and durbars while urging churches and mosques to spend time preaching SRH education and welfare.

He encouraged health workers to make their facilities teen-friendly and teachers to incorporate SRH education into their teaching and learning activities.

Meanwhile, he noted that most adolescents lacked the self-confidence and assertiveness to negotiate their sexual rights, largely due to sociocultural upbringing in which children are told not to talk about sexuality.

“And because of the way we raise our children, they don’t have the confidence to even say no when someone makes advances towards them, even to the point that some adults perpetuate sexual offenses against them because they are told to respect and they did so. too much respect for them. They cannot say no when an elder proposes sex to them,” he noted.

He, however, urged the adolescents to be responsible in their interactions and take care of themselves by developing self-confidence and learning to say ‘no’ when necessary.

Moses Kankpan, Assembly Member for Buffiama Electoral Area, urged other stakeholders to uphold the discussions and decisions taken at the meeting to ensure that they also benefit the adolescents and their communities.

“I think by coming here I have been made aware of certain things that I know that if we live them, my only prayer is that we should not just hear them and throw them away, if we are able to do them to put in the closet. “I think teenage pregnancies, if not stopped, will eventually be reduced to the minimum,” he said.

Mr Dumah Seidu Timothy, a parent, said he would engage other parents on the need to shoulder their parental responsibilities and meet the needs of their children.

“I have learned a lot and I will encourage many parents if we can stick to this. Our children will get the best advice and they will take the best advice from us,” he said.