More community education on reproductive health will be needed to make Family Planning practice acceptable in the Central-Tongu district, an official of the Planned Parenthood Association (PPAG) has said.

Mr Kenneth Atsu Goka, Volta Regional Co-ordinator of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) said the popular thinking among the people in that district was that many sicknesses including headaches and weight gain among women were the consequences of family planning.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the launch of the new female condom at Adidome, Mr Goka said before 2010, family planning was popular in the then North-Tongu district because of a Vision 2000 project sponsored by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) which enabled PPAG to recruit volunteers to carry out family planning with incentive packages.

He said the end of the project in 2010 saw many of the volunteers dropping out, leaving just about 15 of them.

Mr Goka said the situation called for greater collaboration between the PPAG and the Ghana Health Service to fashion out ways of rekindling the voluntary spirit of volunteers, to drive the family health and family planning education in that district.

The PPAG currently has an office at Sogakope in the South-Tongu district to provide family planning services and education with occasional visits to Central Tongu.

Justine Alornyo, District Director of Health, acknowledged that “family planning coverage is very low in the district whilst teenage pregnancy is very high.”

She said health facilities in the district registered a total of 2192 of pregnant women in 2013 out of which 417 were teenage mothers.

Dr Winfred Ofosu, Volta Regional Deputy Director of Public Health, said “all our family planning devices are good and safe, but you need to visit a health facility for examination to determine the most suitable device for you.”