By GNA
Ms Sherifa Mohammed, Programmes Officer of Adolescent Health and Development, Ghana Health Service (GHS), has urged the media to be more committed to adolescents’ sexual reproductive issues.
She said it would help in highlighting the magnitude and urgency of the issues and challenges of adolescents in the country.
Ms Mohammed said this during a workshop organised by the Ghana Health Service in partnership with Marie Stopes Ghana to engage with the media on how to report on Adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) and its related issues.
She said it was important for the media to attach seriousness to Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health issues to enable stakeholders help in providing solutions to the issues, especially adolescent pregnancy.
The Programmes Officer said, it had been necessary for the media to be sensitised to understand the issues to ensure that they educated the public with the facts and right information on Adolescents’ Sexual Reproductive Health and related issues.
Ms Mohammed urged adolescents to get accurate information on their sexual reproductive health and know their rights to ensure that they prevented unintended pregnancies that could lead them to drop out of school.
She advised adolescents to abstain from sex and sexually related activities, and those who were sexually active to protect themselves from contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
Ms Mohammed appealed to parents to counsel their children by using the Parent-Child communication approach to help them stay focused in achieving their goals in life.
Ms Esi Asare-Prah, Advocacy and Youth Focal Person, Marie Stopes Ghana, said the issues of adolescents’ pregnancy had been an issue of concern in the country, hence it was imperative for her organisation to ensure that efforts were advanced to address the issue.
She said Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health should not be treated as only a health or moral issue but also as economic, since it played an important role in national development and for policy makers to act.
She said teenage pregnancy went beyond health and numbers but had implications on the socio- economic development of the country.
She said education could be used as a contraceptive to reduce fertility, which could lead to productivity in the country.
She said the education structure of the country could also be changed to provide practical skills to produce skilled labour force that would contribute to national economic development.
She appealed to stakeholders to invest in adolescents for them to stay in school and acquire the skills and expertise for the benefit of the country.
She urged the media to empathise with adolescents when reporting on issues related to them especially on teenage pregnancy.
