The Akatsi North District in the Volta Region has over the years recorded very high numbers of teenage pregnancies.
In 2014, it recorded 100 cases but this figure declined in 2015 and 2016.
However, in 2017 and 2018, it rose to 112 and 114 respectively. By October 2019, the Akatsi North District had recorded 90 cases already, and by the end of the year, it became the district with the highest number of teenage pregnancies.
But speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of a public awareness and HIV screening exercise organised by Indulge Ghana, the Member of Parliament for the area, Peter Norstu Kotoe, explained that the Ghana Education Service has been particularly helpful by organising Girl Child Clubs for all basic schools within the area, in a bid to intensify sex education among the girls.
Peter Norstu Kotoe further explained that his outfit’s strategy in curbing this menace has been to primarily address issues faced by the girls whom he described as “victims” before turning to the boys who he goes on to describe as “culprits”.
“The Ghana Education Service has organised girl child club in all the basic schools in the districts, we have taken measures to curb it. I hope that the statistics this year will go down”
“What we have started doing is that we want to deal with the victim first, so that victim is educated and knows what is good for her. When we have made sure that we have been able to do that, then we will turn our attention to the boys who are normally the culprits, but the emphasis now within these two years is on the girls, so they would be able to control themselves when the boys make advances towards them.”
Stiffer punishment needed for people who impregnate teenagers – Minister
Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), Cynthia Mamle Morrison, earlier last year expressed concern over the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region, and has called for stiffer punishment for perpetrators.
Reports from the Ghana Health Service for 2016 and 2017 indicated that teenage pregnancy in the District increased from 490 to 522 respectively.
The Minister, who appeared unhappy with the figures, told parents not to see their children getting pregnant as “fashion” and called for strict laws to deter perpetrators.
She made the call when she presented medical equipment and supplies worth over GHC 50,000.00 to Mafi-Dove Health Centre in the Central Tongu District, funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
