‘Youth need sustainable empowerment programmes’
A lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Dr Eugene Dartey, has stressed the need for sustainable youth empowerment programmes to enable them to lead responsible lives.
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He said such programmes and regular counselling of the youth were necessary to help them stay focused in life and exercise responsibility to avoid premarital sex.
Dr Dartey was speaking at a workshop to educate the youth on how to exercise responsibility in their sexual relationships.
It was organised by the Ghana Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Alliance, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that focuses on educating young people on sexual responsibility.
Education
“When enough education is carried out in this regard, it enables young people to make knowledgeable decisions about their sexuality and develop the right attitude,” he noted.
According to the HIVs Sentinel Survey, in 2012 HIV prevalence among young people between 15 and 24 years was 1.3 per cent.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS), in its 2012 report, indicated that 750,000 teenagers between 15 and 19 years became pregnant in 2012.
Annual cases of teenage pregnancy are around the same figure.
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Dr Dartey referred to some challenges of pre-marital sex, such as teenage pregnancy, adolescent reproductive health issues, premature death and poverty, and advised the youth to lead responsible lives and take very good care of themselves.
Open discussion
He said there was the need for open discussions and clear education on sexuality to keep the youth well informed on the topic, pointing out that in some instances, the youth were silent over issues involving sex due to shyness.
A lecturer at the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, Prof Stephen Q. Kwankye, who chaired the event, said issues that concerned the youth should be given the needed attention and treated with much concern.
“Ghanaians need not shy away from things which concern the youth as far as education on their sexuality is concerned,” he stressed.
The National SRHR Alliance Coordinator at the Ghana Education Service, Ms Marvi Colerangle-Ashun, averred that many youth were gaining much knowledge in HIV and AIDS, noting that it was a positive effort on the part of all those who had the interest of the youth at heart.