Planned Parenthood Association Ghana (PPAG), a not for profit organization, has taken the initiative to empower young adolescent girls to help them make right choices.

The training, which targeted teenage mothers, was to sensitize them on their reproductive health and how to be economically independent.

The training with funding support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was held in the Bongo and brought together 25 adolescent girls from five communities in the District.

The girls were trained on some livelihood skills such as the production and market of liquid soap, pastries, business management and bookkeeping techniques that would make them economically viable.

Mr Adam Azabre Abugbila, PPAG Field Officer for Girls Empowerment Project in the Bongo District, 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 and so parents are unable to provide the needs of the children, which makes teenage girls resort to 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 victims of school drop out in the Bongo District.

Mr Abugbila said to curb the menace and make adolescent girls become responsible adults in 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.

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

The DCE 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.