A durbar has been organised at the Nania community to raise awareness on the emerging development of high abuse of contraceptives, drugs, and the surge of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in some districts and municipalities of the Upper East Region.
The durbar, organised by the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Ghana chapter, brought together stakeholders; comprising youth activists, community leaders and women groups from about 78 electoral areas in the Kassena-Nankana West District, Bongo District, Kassena-Nankana Municipality, and the Builsa North Municipality, to take stock of the gains chalked in the implementation of the Sexual Reproductive Health Education (SHARE) project.
The gender transformative project, a consortium project funded by the Global Affairs Canada, aims to advance gender equality and access to sexual reproductive health rights of children between the ages of 15 and 25.
Speaking at the durbar held at Nania, Navrongo suburb of the Upper East Region, Friday, Mr
Emmanuel Gaza, a Senior Field Officer for FAWE Ghana, lamented that even as teenage pregnancy, early marriage and related harmful traditional practices were rapidly taking a nosedive in the project implementation areas, it was observed that substance abuse and STIs were becoming “notoriously” high.
Statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the region reveal that 93 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 24 are on STI and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) treatment in the four districts and municipalities, with Builsa North leading the chart with 58 affected adolescents.
Mr Gaza also stated that dozens of people might be reluctant to avail themselves for HIV test because of stigmatisation, and were not able to know their status.
He, therefore, encouraged the youth in the region not to shy away from going in for the test, saying, “That is the only way to know whether you are infected or not, so that you are put on treatment if the former is the case”.
Again, Mr Gaza blamed the high incidents of drug abuse, STIs and HIV on the illegal mining activities taking place in nearly all districts and municipalities in the region.
“The young men use galamsey proceeds to lure these young girls into having sexual intercourse with them, and eventually infect them with STIs.
” Additionally, some of these young men think mining requires a lot of physical efforts and resort to abusing drugs, hence leading them into going astray”, the Senior Field Officer further lamented.
Mrs Felicia Akampale Akanga, a resident of Zorko in the Bongo District, expressed dissatisfaction with the growing canker of the phenomena and urged FAWE
Ghana and its implementing partners of the SHARE project to direct their attention to the emerging trends by helping afflicted communities to establish Rehabilitation Centres to curb the menace.
Mr Eli Amos Katsekpor, Programme Manager for FAWE Ghana, indicated it was mindboggling to discover that alcoholism had become a coping mechanism for many adolescents who felt troubled.
Furthermore, he mentioned the influx of drugs, such as “blue blue”, ” red 225″, Indian herm (“wee”), and a host of others were gaining ground amongst adolescents in the project implementation districts and municipalities.
A Public Health Nurse at Paga, Belinda Akwata, remarked that the abuse of emergency contraceptives was also a threat to reproductive health of the individuals
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