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C/R records 3,198 teenage pregnancies within 5 months
The Central Region has recorded a total of 3,198 teenage pregnancies from January to May this year.
According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS), drivers, farmers and teachers continued to be the group of men who were impregnating the teens.
Madam Lydia Acquah, a nutrition officer at the Ekumfi District Health Directorate who revealed this, described the situation as ‘very pathetic’ and called for pragmatic measures to be put in place to tackle it.
She was addressing some youth groups in Ekumfi at a day’s step-down engagement between youth groups and policy makers on policy development and implementation on youth participation in decision making at Ekumfi.
The event was organised by the National Youth Authority (NYA) in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) with funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Speaking on adolescent sexual reproductive health and its related issues, Madam Acquah revealed that the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) was common among adolescents.
She said accessing health services was a problem for teen expectant mothers and adolescents with STIs due to the stigma attached to them.
Madam Acquah said the GHS established adolescent friendly clinics to specifically educate and respond to the reproductive health needs of the adolescent, and to ensure they received adequate access to health services.
But surprisingly, she bemoaned, the adolescents were not patronising them, saying this could partly be the reason for the high teenage pregnancies in the region.
Additionally, she indicated, sexual exploitation by some unscrupulous men, irresponsible parenting, misconceptions about family planning, and lack of sex education and family planning had compounded the problem.
In the Ajumako Eyan Esiam District, where more than 237 teen pregnancies had been recorded, Mrs Esther Amankwah, Acting District Health Director underscored the need to assist and guide adolescents as they transitioned into adulthood.
She said adolescents were faced with several reproductive health challenges and that their inability to make the right choices could adversely destroy their future, and cautioned the youth against drug abuse and said such risky behaviours could have lifelong consequences on their health, education and social lives.
ASP Doris Amewude, Deputy Central Regional DOVVSU Coordinator spoke about the role of the youth and other stakeholders in ending Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), and stressed that rape and defilement cases must not be settled at home. GNA
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
