By Seraphine Nyuiemedi
The Volta Regional Department of Gender has held a day’s dialogue meeting for members of the community watch committees set up to oversee the welfare of adolescents especially, the girl child in the Central Tongu District. It was part of efforts to sensitize and build their capacities.
Speaking to GBC news after the dialogue meeting at Mafi Alorsekope, The Volta Regional Director for the Department of Gender, Thywill Eyra Kpe said the dialogue has become necessary to allow participants to interact and share ideas with regards to adolescent pregnancy and other issues confronting them. She said it also seeks to solicit community support to sustain the committees.
The committees were from three communities namely, Mafi Anfoe, Mafi Klukpo and Mafi Alorsekope. In attendance were also traditional leaders and parents from these communities. The discussions focused on the progress of work by the Community Watch committees of the various communities. It also offers participants the opportunity to deliberate on issues such as Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Rights, the sustainability of the watch committees, adolescent protection, ending child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, responsible parenting and parent-child communication among others. The Volta Regional Director for the Department of Gender, Thywill Eyra Kpe said the initiative, which started in 2019 has had a positive impact in all the participating communities.
“At the end of the dialogue, we realized that the impact of the committees in reducing adolescent pregnancy in their communities has been very high. In all the communities that presented, none of them had more than two pregnancies and even those who recorded the pregnancies they indicated that these girls went on vacation elsewhere and came back with the pregnancies. And so we realized that the committees are doing a lot of work to reduce adolescent pregnancy in the Central Tongu District and interestingly, our data from the District also shows that although it’s still high, pregnancy has reduced from way above 20% in 2021 to about 17% in 2022” he said.
Mrs Kpe believes the all hands on deck approach and cooperation from relevant stakeholders will go a long way to reduce adolescent pregnancy and other forms of gender-based violence to its barest minimum.
“We believe that with all stakeholders coming on board and the committees strengthened, we can go a long way to reduce adolescent pregnancy, sexual and gender-based violence and other challenges that are confronting our young people and preventing them from achieving their goals in life,” she said.
Meanwhile, a similar event was early on held for three other participating communities, all in the Central Tongu District. The event was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
