A stakeholders’ meeting on the implementation of a reproductive health project which seeks to empower out-of-school adolescent girls in the Bosome Freho District, has been held at Asiwa.

The project dubbed, “Empowering Adolescent Girls”, is expected to build the capacity of young girls to take the right decisions on their sexual and reproductive health by providing them accurate information on sexual and gender-based violence.

Funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the project is being implemented by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) in collaboration with Rights and Responsibilities Initiative Ghana (RRIG).

The meeting was attended by representatives from traditional authorities, district assembly, the district health directorate, persons with disability, clergy, opinion leaders, and parents.

It was to discuss implementation strategies and the role that stakeholders could play to achieve the desired results in the District, which has one of the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancies in the Ashanti Region.

The participants took turns to appreciate the impact of the project and how it could address the rampant teenage pregnancy in the District.

They also called for the review of the modules for community education to bring it to the level of the targeted girls who are mostly out of school.

Mr. Nii Ankonu Annorbah-Sarpei, Director of Programmes of ARHR, said the project was mainly to provide adolescent girls in the District with reproductive health services through peer network meetings, drama and sports.

He said young girls with various forms of disability would not be left out since they were susceptible to sexual abuse.

“We are also seeking to change perception and knowledge regarding sexuality and the project is structured in such a way that it would benefit adolescent between the ages of 10 to 19 years,” he stated.

“Hopefully, we are looking at using community scorecards to generate evidence on the readiness of health facilities to provide services for adolescent girls.

We will also engage the adolescents to verify if their expectations are met at the facilities,” Mr. Sarpei further explained.

Ms. Francisca Esinam Ahiavih, the District Director of Health Services, said the project would contribute significantly to efforts being made by the health directorate to address the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the District.

She said the directorate would continue to partner ARHR and RRIG in the implementation of the project to make young girls in the District more assertive when making decisions on their sexuality.

She disclosed that adolescent corners had been set up in all health facilities in the District as part of efforts to make reproductive health services accessible to adolescent girls.