‘Involve religious leaders in tackling teenage pregnancy’

● Mrs. Monica Mensah

Mrs. Monica Mensah, women empowerment advocate, is calling on stakeholders and policy makers including religious leaders across the country to help prevent teenage pregnancies.

According to her, ‘the nation cannot address challenges of teenage pregnancy in the communities without the support of religious leaders to sensitise the girl-child to the dangers associated with teenage pregnancies.

She said these in an interaction withThe Spectator about the risks involved in teenage pregnancy and the need for the girl-child to be empowered to attain their future aspirations.

“It is without doubt that, teenage pregnancy is taking its toll on us with unimaginable consequences and poses a threat to the development of the nation because the repercussions of teenage pregnancies puts pressure on the national budget”, Mrs Mensah said.

Mrs. Mensah, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Overcomers Catering School at Ablekuma-Fanmilk, Accra, underscored the need for all to get involved in addressing teenage pregnancy because it increased poverty levels in the country.

“Teen parents and their children are less likely to complete high school and more likely to live in abject poverty, teen mothers are more likely to have low birth weight babies who risk lifelong developmental and health problems all of which may prove to be very costly for families, communities and nations”, she indicated.

She added that, tackling teenage pregnancies would not only reduce high population growth rate, but make it easier for families and nations to invest in quality human capital through good nutrition, health, and better education for the benefit of all.

She stressed that practices that did not conform to the well-being of any girl or woman amounted to abuse and an infringement to their fundamental human rights.

Touching on witch camps in some parts of Ghana, the Gender Advocate condemned the act, classifying it as a cruel phenomenon.

By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah