The initiative which aims at enhancing the knowledge-base of the ‘Kayayei’ on sexual reproductive health and related matters that are necessary for their welfare is intended to create awareness among the target group of their reproductive health rights, and opportunities available to assist them in asserting these rights in times of need.
Head porters provide important and useful services to their clients, but the vocation in itself exposes them to vulnerability and exclusion in the city. Essential service providers such as the Ghana Health Service, Legal Aid Scheme, Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Marie Stopes, Willows Foundation, Population Council, Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, and Ipas – Ghana are some of the governmental and non-governmental agencies that exist to support vulnerable women but whose services are often not accessed because of ignorance.
Addressing the media at a day’s workshop organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to sensitise ‘kayayei’ on teenage pregnancy and their reproductive health, Victoria Natsu, Acting Director of the Domestic Violence Unit of the Ministry said tackling adolescent sexual reproductive health rights is a critical issue for overall national development. Females in Ghana currently represent 51.2% of the entire population of almost 25 million, whereas adolescents represent 22.4% of the total population.
Research has shown that the rate of teenage pregnancy has been consistently high. Of all the birth registered in the country in 2014, 30 percent were by adolescents, and 14 per cent of adolescents aged between 15-19 years had begun childbearing, she added.
She noted that, it is in response to this that the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund UNFPA has established response centers for gender-based violence survivors in three selected markets in Accra and Kumasi. Agblogloshie and Mallam Atta. The aim of the response centers is to increase survivor safety and perpetrators accountability. The centers will coordinate and link core services and provide immediate to long-term healthcare, access to police, legal and counseling services.
She empathised that, “as Ghana is moving forward, we must understand that women’s empowerment remains key to our development process as country and it is with this that the government of H.E John Dramani Mahama will continue to promote and safeguard the rights and welfare of all vulnerable persons in Ghana, especially women and children”.
The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service educated the participants, mostly teen-aged girls on how to report people who have sexually and physically abused them. Assistant staff officer at the head quaters of DOVVSU Mrs Lydia Osei Agyapong encouraged the kayayei not to be afraid or convinced to be sympathetic to people who subject them to abuse, but rather report their abusers to any DOVVSU officer for assistance and protection.
She said people who deliberately touched or fondled any part of their bodies such as their breasts were sexually harassing them so they should quickly stay away from them and avoid them.
Madam Diana Bona, an Adolescent Health Focal Person from the Ghana Health Service shared an insight on adolescent health in greater Accra region. She said in 2015, a total of 10,473 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 visited clinics for various family planning services.
On adolescent deliveries, she said there had been a decrease from 6,446 in 2014 to 6,287 in 2015, while a total of 7,806 attended post-natal clinics in 2014 as against 7,460 in 2015.
Madam Bona called for the establishment of effective collaboration with civil society organisations, among others to help curb the menace of teenage pregnancy in the country.
Source: Public Agenda
By Latifa Carlos
