The Central Regional Department of Gender under the auspices of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (CRCC) with the support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has adopted pragmatic measures to combat the high rate of teenage pregnancy and child marriages in the region.

In view of this, the Department has organized a three-day intensive mentorship and girls’ empowerment summit 2017 on child marriage and teenage pregnancy for 90 school girls drawn from 17 rural communities schools with very high incidence of adolescent pregnancy in order to go back as ambassadors in their various communities.

It was under theme “The road to 2030: Empowering the Girls Child for sustainable Development of the Central Region”.

The girls were taken through the Adolescent sexuality, causes effects and prevention of adolescent pregnancy and child marriage, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV)and the Rights of the Girl Child, good grooming and personal hygiene during adolescent, career guidance and how to seek redress for SGBV.

The Acting Central Regional Director of Department of Gender, Mrs. Thywill Eyra Kpe believed the three-day intensive mentorship training would afford these girls from their various communities’ equal opportunities to information and capacity building to prevent pregnancy and child marriage in those areas.

She explained that, the Department of Gender goal is to help raise a new generation of girls who will take their education and personal development seriously in order to take their rightful place in leadership and decision making by 2030.

Mrs. Eyra Kpe mentioned that, the region until 2016 was among the top three regions high teenage pregnancy ranging from 15% in 213 to 14.5% in 2015.

According to her, the region however dropped to the 6th at 13.3% place in 2016 as a result of the coordinated stakeholder’s efforts implemented by various stakeholders in the region.

The girls were introduced to mentors from different fields of endeavor to share their life experiences and motivate the girls to aspire higher in their education and career pursuits.

Dr. Comfort Asare, the Acting National Director of Department of Gender lauded the Mrs. Eyra Kpe, for her commitment and hard work for adding value to the Department of Gender in the Central Region.

She revealed that, Central Region ranks second highest in adolescent pregnancy with 21.4% rate with girls between the ages of 15 to 19 either getting pregnant or having their first child.

These figures, according to her are alarming and if measures are not put in place to curb the issues of teenage pregnancy and early child marriage then Ghana as a country will be found wanting in the year 2030 when the sustainable development goals have ended.

Dr. Asare revealed that her Ministry is currently implementing an ECOWAS scholarship programme which offers scholarship to brilliant but needy girls undertaking professional and technical education at secondary and tertiary levels.

She added that so far 23 girls have benefited from Scholarship programme and a new selection process is underway for the selection of new batch of beneficiaries.