The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE-GHANA), as part of the implementation of the Sexual Health and Reproductive Education (SHARE) Project, has held a two-day advocacy engagement with key stakeholders.
The SHARE Project, which is being implemented by FAWE-Ghana in four municipal and district assemblies including, Kassena Nankana West, Kassena Nankana Municipal, Builsa North Municipal and the Bongo District, aims to remove barriers to health-related human rights and improve access to sexual and reproductive education as well as gender-responsiveness for young people in Ghana, Mozambique and Uganda.
The five-year project, which is in its fourth year, is expected to reach 225,000 adolescents and youth and is being implemented through a partnership between Right to Play, The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE-GHANA), WaterAid with technical assistance from FHI 360 and funding from the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
Statistics for the four project areas indicates a rise in the rate of teenage pregnancy in Bongo. The district recorded 85.72% in 2024, an increase from the 2023 percentage of 82.16. Builsa North Municipality witnessed a positive drop from 56.09 percent in 2023 to 48.85 percent.
The Kassena Nankana Municipal also witnessed a marginal drop from 59.49 percent in 2023 to 57. 95, with the Kassena Nankana West District also recording a drop from 71.81 percent in 2023 to 69.38 in 2024.
It is on this score that FAWE organized the advocacy engagement, bringing together chiefs, Queen Mothers, Assembly Members, and health and education actors to chart a common path to significantly bring the numbers down if not eliminate the menace of teenage pregnancy and to also explore ways to completely end early and forced marriages.
Speaking to Dreamz News on the sidelines of the engagement, Richard Amoani, the National Coordinator of FAWE-GHANA, explained that there are issues of gender-stereotyping, cultural issues, and forced marriage with hidden pockets of acts of FGM.
He is, however, delighted over the level commitment shown by the community leaders in helping to gradually address the challenges.
Mr. Amoani said he expects close collaboration with the stakeholders to tackle the challenges going forward.
“So the key issue we have identified is that we still realize that there are still what we call the gender stereotyping, where people think that there are certain things that are solely for the domain for girls and the domain for boys. And so, if you are a girl, that is the path you have to tread. If you are a boy, that is the path that you have to tread.”
“There is a need for us to think through and see what we can do differently to ensure that people understand that they have gifts and talents. Let’s allow them to use their talents and gifts rather than limiting them based on what society has defined for them. So those are some of the issues. The other issue is that some cultural practices are still going on where people are taking undue advantage. Where we talk about traditional healers. Whenever the people go to them for help, they take advantage and make all sorts of demands. We think these are things that need to be changed.” He stressed
At the end of the engagement, the stakeholders took turns to pledge their commitment to helping in efforts to address the challenges with the chiefs urging the Ghana education service to monitor children who are absent from school and report to them for the needed follow-up and action.
