Mr. Kobina Afena-Sam, Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman of the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations, on Thursday advised parents to provide their adolescent girls with basic reproductive health and basic needs.

He noted with regret that cases of teenage pregnancy and illegal abortion were on the ascendancy “because some parents especially fathers shirk their responsibilities and allow their children to fend for themselves”.

Mr. Afena-Sam, who is also the Regional Director of the National Youth Council, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview after the coalition organised a walk to commemorate this year’s International Women’s day celebration in Sunyani.

The United Nations has set-aside March 8 every year as the International Women’s Day to, among others, acknowledge the role of women in socio-economic and political development of humanity.

The walk, which lasted for about two hours, was organised by the coalition with support from OXFAM, a United Kingdom NGO and attended by more than 150 participants drawn from civil society organizations in the region.

Participants held placards with inscriptions including; “promote women’s rights”, “women’s rights should be a national concern” and “free health care for women”.

Mr. Afena-Sam observed that available statistics at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, as well as the Department of Social Welfare indicated that parental neglect was very high in the Region.

He said parents who shirked their responsibilities to their children should be arrested and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to like-minded others.

Mr. Afena-Sam expressed concern about some outmoded traditional practices such as the female genital mutilation, which traumatised victims, was still rife in some communities in the Region.

He called for a free but quality health care delivery for women, girls, children and people with all forms of disability.

This, Mr. Afena-Sam said, can be a reality if the country’s resources are used judiciously.