The view from here

The Executive Director of the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), Fairuza Abdul-Rashid Safian, has called for urgent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education among young people.

She explained that many adolescents struggled to make informed decisions because they lacked the knowledge and confidence to understand issues related to their sexual well-being.

She made this known during the official launch of CAMFED’s SRH pilot project at Abura Dunkwa in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese (AAK) District in the Central Region.

The project followed the signing of a six-month memorandum of understanding (MoU) between CAMFED and the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), designed to respond to rising concerns such as teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and school dropouts among adolescents.

Ms Safian noted that although CAMFED had long focused on promoting girls’ education, it became clear that education alone was not enough.

Many girls, she said, were getting pregnant or contracting STIs, which affected their ability to stay in school and thrive. This, she said, pushed the organisation to partner PPAG to provide young people with access to timely and accurate SRH information.

“Time is changing, and it is important to prepare our young people for the realities they face,” she said. “They need to have the confidence and knowledge to make decisions that protect their future.”

Partnership

The Executive Director of PPAG, Abena Adubea Amoah, explained that the partnership was aimed at helping adolescents, especially girls, make personal decisions about their sexual lives without fear or stigma.

According to her, most young people felt shy or scared to seek help because society was quick to judge and label them.

She urged parents, teachers and health professionals not to shut down conversations on sexual health, warning that the silence often led to unplanned pregnancies and other health complications.

The District Director of the Ghana Health Service in the AAK District, Mavis Narh, praised the collaboration and noted that her outfit has already been reaching out to both in-school and out-of-school youth with health education.

She encouraged CAMFED and PPAG to expand their programmes to cover those who were not enrolled in school.

For her part, the Central Regional Director of Education, Dr Juliette Dufie Otamie, said CAMFED’s efforts aligned with the Ghana Education Service’s objective to support the total well-being of students, physically, mentally and emotionally.

She encouraged students present to take the lessons seriously and share what they learned with their peers.

The head of monitoring and evaluation from PPAG, Kojo Asamoah Boateng, added that although CAMFED has been doing well in supporting adolescent girls in school, the rate of teenage pregnancy remained high.

He explained that this partnership with PPAG was intended to fill this gap by bringing in expertise in SRH education.

He also revealed that recent research showed that HIV cases were declining among adults but increasing among adolescents, making the need for interventions even more urgent.