for 22 Participants drawn from Bunkpurugu Youyo

Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana(PPAG), one of the leading NGO in Sexual Reproductive Health in Ghana has organized a six day training workshop for twenty two participants drawn from five communities in the Bunkpurugu Youyo District of the Northern Region.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Friday , the Northern Zonal Manger of PPAG, Mr Peter Dakurah explained that his outfit decided to organize the training programme in Bolgatanga so as to get a neutral ground for both ethnic groups from Bunkpurugu Youyo District to attend due to the recent conflict that broke out in the area.

The twenty two participants made up of eleven Non- Traditional Distributors(NTDs) of contraceptives and eleven Peer Educators were drawn from the five communities including Boaterigu, Bimbago South, Dukluatuk, Gberuk Kunkouk, Nankpanduri .

The programme sponsored by the UNFP Sixth Country Programme was aimed at equipping the participants with the accurate information and skills in reproductive health issues so as to empower them educate community members on Reproductive Health Issues . The Northern Zonal Manger of PPAG who indicated that the project commenced in June 2013 would run until December, 2017 and would include package of the distribution of contraceptives to the communities by the NTDs of contraceptive.

He said one of the major aim of the programme was to expand the contraceptives services and to make them easily accessibly in communities and indicated people often feel shy to walk to the drug stores to purchase them and said under the programme the NTDs had been trained and are stationed at vantage points in communities which would make it more easier for people to patronize the commodities.

He explained that PPAG was very interested of young people between the ages of 10 to 24 years and stated that the peer educators who have received training from the workshop are expected to educate people particularly the younger ones on sexual reproductive issues including Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STDs), unwanted pregnancies and abortions and other related reproductive issues.

He noted that the participants had also been trained to refer complicated reproductive health issues to health facilities to be addressed and indicated that his outfit would visit the participants in their communities periodically to conduct performance appraisal of them and to assist them with new ideas on how to implement the programme successfully.

Mr Dakurah announced that a similar programme to be funded by the Dutch Government would be implemented by PPAG in five communities in the Bolgatanga Municipality dubbed “Accessing Knowledge and Services on Reproductive Health Issues” targeting young ones and using the Social Media Platforms including E- Learning and the twitter and the face book.

He pointed out that since 1967 PPAG and its collaborators such as the Ghana Health Service (GHS) had been implementing Sexual Reproductive Health programmes because it had realized that Government alone could not deal with the problem, adding “It is also very crucial to help government attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) four and five in 20115 which is very closer” .

The Participants were taken through topics by a resource person from the GHS including the concept of peer education, Sexual Rights, Contraceptives and Contraception, Gender Roles and Stereotypes ,Puberty Changes , Anatomy of Male and Female Sexual Organs , Functions of Sexual Organs, Sex and Sexuality, Sexual and Gender Base Violence and among others .