Kadjebi (V/R), Dec 18, – Madam
Olivia Agbeko, Midwife of the Dodo Amanfrom Health Centre in the Kadjebi
District of the Volta region has blamed the alarming rate of teenage
pregnancies in the country on poverty.
She explained that most of the
victims were from poor homes and were unable to properly take care of their
daily needs.
She observed that many of the
teenage pregnant girls who come to their facility for antenatal services were
either school dropouts or unemployed thus putting them and their unborn
children in a more precarious situation.
Madam Agbeko was addressing some
clients in Dodo Amanfrom at the weekend as part of an innovative health
educational campaign strategy being implemented by Savana Signatures, an NGO in
collaboration with the Ghana Health Service aimed at improving maternal and
child health in three regions of Ghana.
The Technology for Maternal and
Child Health (T4MCH) project is being implemented in the Northern, Upper West
and Volta regions with funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
Madam Agbeko appealed to parents
to take good care of their children in order to prevent them from falling foul
to pre-marital activities stressing that men who impregnate teenagers should be
severely dealt with to serve as deterrent to others.
She commended Savana Signatures
for introducing such an innovative educational technology which aided them in
their outreach programmes explaining that many pregnant women received periodic
voice and sms messages on pregnancy and child care.
Mrs Diana Isaac, a pregnant woman
who had been receiving periodic voice and sms messages through the T4MCH
project urged the implementers to extend the facility to all pregnant women to
enhance quality health and reduce maternal and infant mortalities.
Mr Abdul-Rashid Imoro, Programmes
Manager of Savana Signatures said the T4MCH is being implemented in nine
districts in 33 health facilities targeting 30,000 women and 28,000 men to
reduce maternal and new born mortalities.
“The immediate outcomes of the
project is to improve delivery of essential health services to pregnant women
and new mothers and also to improve on the utilisation of essential health
services by pregnant women and newborns”, he said.
Mr Imoro explained that more
health facilities had been included in the project to ensure many people
benefited stressing that voice messaging component of the programme would be
translated to include more languages.
He suggested the need for sexual
reproduction and rights education to be introduced to young people in the communities
to reduce teenage pregnancies that contributed to early marriages.
GNA
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