Wassa Akropong (W/R), April 12 -GNA - Hajia Alima Mahama Minister of Women and Children's affairs has called on the female youth not to be swayed by sugar-coated words or the wealth of men but to develop themselves for the challenges of their future lives. Hajia Mahama said teenage pregnancy will ruin the future lives of girls or set back their clock of development. She said this at Wassa Akropong during an interaction with a cross section of women as part of a working visit to the Wassa Amenfi East District.

The meeting also was to explain to the women some programmes government has put in place which they can derive benefit from. Hajia Mahama said rather, they should attend school and develop their potential which would enable them to be marketable in future, saying, things have changed and women must move abreast with time in order not to be left out. She also told the women to play their part by sending their daughters to school and advised them not to be baited by attractions that will drift them into teenage pregnancy. The Minister also advised the women to practice family planning in consultation with their husbands. This, she said, should not create a problem with the couples but arriving at a mutual understanding or convincing the husband to use condom, adding that, these will give them ample time to gain strength and organize resources for the upbringing of their children.

Hajia Mahama reminded women that domestic violence places responsibility on them, saying, "women should not maltreat children but treat them equally and even when they are house-helps sent them to school and do not engage in human trafficking. She told the women to show compassion to HIV/AIDS positive because some of them were affected through no fault of theirs and advised HIV/AIDS positive people not to shroud their conditions in secrecy but go to hospital for anti-retroviral therapy to prolong their life span. She said HIV/AIDS disease should be seen as a disease which can affect anybody and therefore people should guard against it. Touching on soft loans given to the women, the Minister made it clear that the loans are not for free but they should rather work with it and pay for others to also benefit.

Finally she said women play very important role in maintaining peace in the society and this is what women should strive for at home and in society at large. Madam Helena Appiah, Wassa Amenfi East District Director of Education said there is increase in enrollment and retention of girls in schools. For instance, she said, statistics indicated that girls in pre-school rose from 5,028 in 2007 to 5,364 in 2008 showing addition of 336 with a percentage of 7% and retention at the pre-school level is 99.8% with only 0.2 drop-out. She said in Junior High School the District Director of Education said in 2007, 2,023 was recorded in 2007 but rose to 2,883 in 2008, an addition of 606 with 33% increase and retention rate was 95.9%.

In the Senior High School, she said 323 girls were recorded in 2007 and rose to 367 in 2008, an addition of 44 with 12% increase and the retention rate was 97%. Madam Appiah attributed the dropout to teenage pregnancy, early marriage, peer influence, child labour and some parents negative attitude towards education.

Mr. Calystus Mwin, Wassa Amenfi East Director, Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) the District Agricultural development Unit has put in place various programmes, including women in agro-processing where staff of his outfit conducts demonstration with female farmers, train them in gari processing and packaging and train them in efficient extraction of quality palm oil. Dr. Franck Yaw Sarpong, who sat in for District Director of Health Services enumerated the benefits of Mutual Health Insurance Scheme put in place by government and appealed to those who have registered to do so immediately. He said hitherto, operations involving child birth attracted a fee but under the health insurance scheme it is free. He said malaria is still number one killer and because of that, government has distributed treated mosquito nets and appealed to the women to ensure that they sleep in the net to protect them from mosquito bite.

Dr. Sarpong also told them to send their children for immunization to protect them against the six childhood killer diseases. He told the HIV/AIDS positive to come forward for antiretroviral therapy because the district Hospital is now a centre to administer the drug. In her welcoming address, Madam Doris Gyapomah Oduro Wassa Emenfi East District said since the NPP Government assumed office, a good number of policies and programmes were taken with the ultimate aim to enhance the living conditions of the people. She mentioned National Health Insurance scheme, Capitation grant and Youth in employment as some of them.