The Director of Home of Chances, a non-governmental organisation, Edward Dadzie, has deplored the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the Central Region and charged stakeholders to collectively come together to help deal with the problem.

He said it was unacceptable for a region with some of the best educational institutions that had produced prominent personalities in the country to have girls dropping out school in their teens as a result of lack of proper care, thereby leading to unwanted pregnancies.

He cited a 2021 statistics that indicated that 5,110 adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 got pregnant in the Central Region between January to June 2021.

Critical

Mr Dadzie said it was critical that teenage girls leveraged the successes of great personalities, especially females who attended school in the region, to develop themselves well in order to contribute to national development.

He said that at the launch of Home of Chances Foundation at Senya Bereku last weekend.

The organisation, among other things, aims to support teenage girls who have dropped out of school to acquire vocational skills and to go back to school after child birth.

Each of the first 10 beneficiaries was presented with an undisclosed sum and other items to support in their acquisition of vocational skills.

Sponsorship

Mr Dadzie said those who wanted to go back to school, as well as others that wanted to undertake vocational training would be sponsored with 50 per cent of the cost.

He said although the initial beneficiaries were from Senya Bereku, it would be extended to girls from Gomoa Fetteh and Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, all in the Central Region around the same period next year.

The director said it was unfortunate that “we cannot point to a single prominent female in government from Senya Bereku, Fetteh, Ojobi, Akoti or Brakwa, adding that the narrative would have to change for the betterment of the respective areas.

“Home of Chances Foundation will not take pleasure in seeing our teenage girls getting pregnant so that we can have durbars for whatever purpose, rather our objective is to address the unpleasant situation which has given a bad reputation to our part of the country and help reduce teenage pregnancy,” he emphasised.

Charge

Mr Dadzie charged parents and guardians to desist from spending money on funeral cloths and use such resources to invest in the education of their children, including girls.

He said there were great opportunities out there thus the need to support girls to acquire the needed education for them to impact their world positively.

Speaking at the event, the Saanahene of Senya Bereku, Nenyi Kofi Brebo V, commended Mr Dadzie for the initiative and called on all to support it to become successful.

An evangelist with the Church of Christ at Tema,  Bernard Asante, urged youngsters from the town to concentrate on their studies and not lose focus.

Education, he said, was critical to a successful life.

SOURCE: GraphicOnline