Mrs Jocelyn Adii, the Bono and Ahafo Regional Director of the Department of Gender, over the weekend, called for intensified public education and concreted efforts among all stakeholders to control teenage pregnancies in the three regions.

She said cases of teenage pregnancies were soaring and affecting girl-child education in the regions adding that sexual reproductive health education among teenagers ought to be upped to bring the situation under control.

Statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) indicate that 12,492 cases of teenage pregnancy were recorded in the three regions in 2016, and 15,000 in 20167, and 12,933 in 2018.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a day’s sensitization workshop on gender equality and adolescent healthcare in Sunyani, Mrs Adii called for effective collaboration between GHS, Ghana Education Service (GES), her department and traditional authorities to design realistic interventions to arrest the situation.

The Regional Directorate of the Gender Department, with support from the United Nation Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), organized the workshop aimed at sensitizing participants on sexual reproductive healthcare.

It was attended by about 150 adolescent boys and girls from various sectors of the society.

Mrs Adii said teenage girls who were out of school are vulnerable, hence the need to sensitize them on sexual reproductive health care.

She said boys and girls ought to know and understand their basic human rights and privileges to enable them make informed choices.

Mr Richard Kyeremeh Yeboah, a Senior Regulatory Officer at the Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority, took the participants through some dangers of drug abuse such abuse of tramadol, Indian Hemp smoking and alcoholism.

He expressed concern over abuse of tramadol among wheelbarrow pushers with the wrong perception that tramadol enhanced energy of abusers saying abuse of the drug would rather harm the health of the individual.