Four Schools in the Nkwanta South Municipality of the Oti Region have seen the establishment of Adolescents School Health Clubs.
The Schools include Nkwanta Community SHS, Nkwanta SHS, Kyabobo Girls SHS, and Ntruboman SHS.
The event, jointly organised by the GHS and the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) of the Ghana Education Service (GES), was attended by about 300 students and some teachers from the four(4) Senior High Schools (SHSs) selected from the Nkwanta Municipality in the Region.
It was sponsored by the Ghana Health Service to promote quality health and advocacy on sexual reproductive health.
The occasion aimed at preparing the participating SHSs for a common platform in the launch of the ASH Clubs by those individual institutions in the Region.
Public Health Nurse, St Joseph Hospital, Nkwanta South, Eric Akumani said most of the sexual reproductive health issues were attributed to misinformation and unavailability of information on Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health in the country.
Adolescent corners had, therefore, been created in some health facilities to provide health services, tailored to the needs of the adolescents/young people, he said.
The Health Practitioner said facilities without the corners used the integrative approach, as service providers in those facilities had been trained to provide youth-friendly services.
Ms Gill Noris, Project Manager at the Ghana Education Projects expressed regret that the majority of adolescents in Ghana lacked access to appropriate and adequate information on reproductive health care and education, to assist them in managing their health and development.
Ms Noris admitted that the situation was challenging with related high risks for adolescents, parents, the government and society in general.
It, therefore, required proper management by all stakeholders to inculcate in the youth good moral values to prepare them to take up leadership roles and responsibilities in the future, she added.
Mr. Bernard Joachim Potakey, Team Leader for ASH Clubs, later told the beyondfmonline.com that the Ghana Adolescent Reproductive Health Programme was their major project in the country to equip young people as health ambassadors for sustainable development and to reduce teenage pregnancy in the municipality and beyond.
Mr Potakey said, the formation of the ASH Clubs in those selected SHSs, would be replicated in the remaining SHSs in the region, and ultimately extended to all second cycle institutions nationwide.
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Source: beyondfmonline.com
