PPAG empowers adolescent girls in Bongo District

Twent-five adolescent girls from five communities in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region have undergone training on how to be economically independent.

The girls were trained on livelihood skills such as the production and market of liquid soap, pastries, business management and bookkeeping techniques.

The training also sensitised them to their reproductive health.

Organised by the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), a not-for-profit organisation, it was to empower the adolescent girls to help them make right choices in life.

The training, which targeted teenage mothers, was funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and was held in Bongo.

Teenage pregnancy

The PPAG Field Officer for Girls Empowerment Project in the Bongo District, Mr Adam Azabre Abugbila, said the ultimate aim of the project was to help eradicate teenage pregnancies among adolescent girls.

He said the major cause of teenage pregnancy in the Bongo District was poverty as parents were unable to provide the needs of their children, resulting in teenage girls sleeping with men for money and other gifts in order to meet their needs.

He said the canker had led to many adolescent girls becoming school dropout in the district.

Mr Abugbila said to curb the menace and make adolescent girls to become responsible adults in the future, it was necessary to introduce livelihood empowerment programmes and that interactions with some teenage mothers and school dropouts showed that they were willing to learn trades or be re-enrolled in school.

Mr Abugbila reiterated the need for the teaching of sex education in all basic schools and said some teenage mothers blamed their ordeal on the lack of knowledge regarding their reproductive health.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bongo, Mr Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga, in his speech, called for collaborative efforts to help reduce teenage pregnancies in the district.

He assured the girls of his support and urged them to take the livelihood skills training seriously to help reduce the economic burden on parents in the district. — GNA