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The Ashanti Regional National Youth Authority at a ceremony to celebrate Africa Youth Day has launched the “Teenage Mothers Livelihood Project” at Ahinsan in Kumasi.
The day is being celebrated under the theme, “Safeguarding The Teenage Girl: A Clarion Call To Action”.
Launching the Project, the Ashanti Regional Director of the National Youth Authority, George Amponsah Orwell noted that the project has been in gestation for months now.
According to him, the “Teenage Mothers Livelihood Project” is in pursuit of the national deliberation on the need to curb the ever increasing adolescent child bearing phenomenon.
George Amponsah Orwell regretted that teenage teenage pregnancy is one of the social problems in the 21st century that has received global attention, likewise in Ghana.
He said the canker has become very prevalent in Ghana in the recent times and needs urgent attention.
“The Ghana Health Service report on reproductive health, Ghana has recorded 555,575 cases of teenage pregnancy between 2014 and 2019. In 2020 alone, there were 107,023 cases of teenage pregnancies in Ghana,” he emphasized.
George Amponsah Orwell noted sadly that Ashanti Region seems to be bearing the ugly head among its colleague 15 regions.
Out of this 2020 figure, he reiterated that Ashanti Region recorded the highest number of cases, i.e. 17,802, representing 16.2% of the national figure.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the NYA revealed that the Eastern Region comes next recorded 10,865, representing 10.1%.
“This means the recorded cases in Ashanti Region was close to twice of the recorded cases in the next highest region. Though, it is the case that the population of Ashanti Region is relatively higher and therefore, cases like teenage pregnancy will be higher in terms of other regions; the region bears a higher proportion of the teenage pregnancy percentage compared to our share of the national population. This is the reason why it is in order that measures to curb this menace should be more urgent in our region,” he noted.
Source : wontumi online.com
