International Needs Ghana a non-governmental organization says the issue of transactional sex where adolescent young girls engage in sex in return for basic things like sanitary pads, food, clothing among others is on the rise in the Central Region.
The group has indicated that this is mostly because parents of these adolescent girls cannot afford to provide them with basic necessities forcing them to engage in sex for favours.
“Our baseline and endline studies at International Needs Ghana show that transactional sex is going on in many communities in the Central Region and when I say transactional sex I mean girls who engage in sex for basic items such as sanitary pads. But we believe the vulnerability of girls in these communities can be less deepened if only we provide for them,” Programs Officer for International Needs Ghana, Vera Elikem said.
Speaking to Citi News after International Needs Ghana with assistance from UNICEF and UNFPA supported 2,200 adolescent girls in 12 communities with three months supply of sanitary kits to commemorate world menstrual hygiene day.
Vera Elikem is optimistic that the gesture will be beneficial to the girls.
The day was also used to highlights the importance of good personal hygiene among adolescent girls in the region.
“We presented these items to adolescent girls to mark world menstrual hygiene day and we all know women do face barriers when it comes to the issue of menstruation which has to do with access to hygiene materials and in some cases stigma. It is due to this that we have decided to provide adolescent girls with dignity kits to keep themselves clean and healthy,” Vera Elikem Awuye noted.
According to her, they are engaged in various forms of education to empower adolescent girls to make informed decisions about their lives.
“In this era of coronavirus pandemic we realized that access to information is going to be challenging because previously we meet girls in smaller groups to educate them but that is not the case now so we have resorted to engaged in radio programs and the use of community public address systems to reach these girls with informed ideas,” the Programs Officer said.
Some adolescent girls who spoke to Citi News said the gesture would go a long way to support them and also prevent them from falling prey to individuals who lure them with money to have sexual intercourse with them.
According to one of the adolescent girls (name withheld) who comes from Kissi in Elmina, she is forced to use her dirty clothes as a makeshift pad anytime she is having her periods.
She lamented that she does not know how to use a pad as she has been using old clothes.
“When I menstruate I use one of my dirty clothes as a pad and because of that I don’t know how to use a pad. Sometimes when it becomes worse, I don’t even go to school at all but thanks to this NGO I have been transformed,” one of the adolescent girls said.
Regional Director for the Department of Gender Children and Social Protection Thywill Eyra Kpe was grateful to UNFPA and UNICEF for the partnership that has put smiles on the faces of the adolescent girls.
“We are grateful to UNFPA and UNICEF for their support in putting smiles on the faces of the 1,200 adolescent girls in the region and it is my hope that the three months supply of sanitary pad will reduce the rate of transactional sex,” Thywill Eyra Kpe said.