The Volta Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Mrs Thywill Eyra Kpe, encouraged parents to continuously learn about parenting and adolescent development.
She said the incessant acquisition of knowledge and skills in parenting and adolescent development was vital in ensuring that parents were well positioned and adequately prepared to discharge their responsibilities.
Mrs Kpe was speaking during a day’s training workshop for 50 Leads of Community Parents Advocacy Support Groups (CoPAGS) at Kpeve in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region.
The participants were drawn from seven communities in three districts, South Dayi, North Dayi and Afadjato South, with representations from queen mothers, religious bodies and parent-teacher associations, among others.
She said the CoPAGS were formed as part of the UNFPA Seven Country Project, which focused on the protection of adolescent girls from unwanted pregnancy, sexual abuse and gender-based violence.
The groups, she said, were expected to serve as advocates for parental responsibilities and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and sexual and gender-based violence issues.
Mrs Kpe said one of the key factors contributing to the high rate of abuse was parental irresponsibility and the training would equip the participants with knowledge and skills on how to parent correctly and effectively.
The training also aimed to educate the participants on the laws, rights and responsibilities of young people so they could help in protecting and empowering both adolescent boys and girls.
The Director said parenting was a tough task and that without the requisite knowledge, parents would be unable to guide their children appropriately and this could pose a great challenge to the country’s future.
Mrs Kpe disclosed that her outfit would soon be embarking on-campus conversations on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and sexual and gender-based violence, starting from Senior High Schools.
She said teenage pregnancy continued to be on the rise, requiring a multisectoral approach to address and that bringing various stakeholders on board would help provide drastic measures to curb the situation.
Mrs Mawusi Agbezuhlor Mawutor, the Regional Director of Social Welfare, said parents needed to develop a good rapport with their children, especially adolescents.
She urged parents to provide a safe environment for their children, support them in times of distress and guide them appropriately to the right choices in life.
Parents are the technical persons in the life of children, she said, and that they must endeavour to provide good parenting to children, noting that every child must be guided to become a responsible person in future.
Mr Godwin Kwame Dadzawa, the District Chief Executive, who opened the workshop, thanked the Department of Gender and the Volta Regional Coordinating Council for developing measures to address issues of teenage pregnancy and child marriage in the Region.
