Mixed sex football games held

The Young Urban Women Movement in collaboration with Beilpela Health Centre and the Northern Region Assembly Women Caucus on Good Governance (NORWACGG) have held the first ever mixed sex football games in Tamale.

The event, which took place over the weekend with support from NORSAAC, a non-governmental organization, was to educate and sensitize community members on reproductive health and breast cancer infections.

The games were also to bring together both sexes to deliberate on societal issues and had in attendance four suburbs of Tamale- Beilpela, Nalung, Kakpagyili and Tuutingli, as well as the Young Urban Women, an NGO.

There were also talks on issues such as adolescent bodily changes, breast cancer, menstruation, and conception and contraception.

It formed part of a three-year project dubbed "The Young Urban Women Project," implemented by the NORSAAC in the Tamale Metropolis since October 2013, with funding support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), through ActionAid Ghana.

It aims at ensuring that in three years’ time, 2,000 (1000 each for Tamale and Accra) young urban women living in poverty in Ghana would have greater dignity through more economic independence and control over their bodies, and their voices would be heard and recognized in international fora.

Ms Kawusada Abubakari, Project Coordinator of NORSAAC said the games and the talks on various topics gave participants a better understanding of sexual and reproductive health issues whiles affording them the opportunity to ask relevant questions on the issues.

Ms Iddrisu Sikena, a participant from Beilpela said the lessons on sexual and reproductive health issues would help her to better respond to such bodily changes.