14-16YRS GIRLS FOR FAMILY PLANNING

Health officials at Pokrom in the Akuapem South
District of the Eastern Region have now resorted
to family planning methods as the panacea to
controlling the rising trend of teenage
pregnancy among girls aged between 14 to 16
years in the farming community.
According to the Senior Staff Midwife at Pokrom
Health Center, Wendylove Ofori, 15 school girls
aged between 14 and 16 years underwent
jadelle method of family planning to protect
them from unwanted pregnancies since they
admittedly pointed out that they could not
abstain from pre-marital sex.
Teenage pregnancy has been on the upward
surge in the community forcing the health
officials to develop various strategies to help
curb the phenomenon.
One of such strategies by the Pokrom Health
Officials was the formation of adolescent clubs
to educate the teenagers on adolescent re­
productive health; however, the menace
continues to increase.
She said, in 2014, a total of 71 teenage
pregnancies were recorded in the community
with some having safe delivery while about 15
had their pregnancies terminated on health
grounds.
According to Madam Ofori, the situation can be
attributed to irresponsible parenting and
extreme level of poverty in the community, which
have forced many young girls to depend on
young men in the community for survival, which
results in their being pregnant.
The Senior Midwife stressed that, a lot of
reproductive health education programmes have
been rolled out to help reduce the menace.
In the interim however, aparents are being
encouraged to advise their children, who are
reluctant to abstain from sexual intercourse, to
patronize family planning in which 15 young
girls were subjected to jadelle method.
Madam Wendylove Ofori also mentioned that,
the support of traditional leaders, opinion
leaders and Churches in the community have
been solicited to help reduce the incident of
teenage pregnancies'being recorded.
She appealed for the support of Non-
Governmental Organizations and philanthropists
to support their adolescent clubs to ensure its
sustainability.
She also appealed for replacement of its
defunct generator that broke down years ago to
help in their work effectively in the evening
since they resort to the use of torchlight when­
ever there is power outage in the community in
delivering service to their clients despite the
threat of snakes and scorpions in the environ­
ment.
Pokrom is predominantly a pineapple growing
farming community in the Akuapem South
District with a population of over 12,000 people.