News
Teenage Pregnancy: Akatsi South among top 3 in Volta under 2024 half-year review
Statistics from the Akatsi South Municipal Health Directorate showed that the Municipality is among the top three Districts to have recorded increasing cases of Teenage Pregnancy for the 2024 half-year health performance review.
The figures saw Anloga District leading the chart with 15.3 per cent, whilst South Dayi and Akatsi South were joint second, recording an equal percentage of 15.0 per cent with South Tongu holding the fourth position.
This was made known during a half-year health performance review by health officials from the Akatsi South Municipal Health Directorate.
The figures further indicated some Districts in the region that have recorded some rise in cases relating to teenage pregnancy.
These are, Agotime Ziope 14.5, Central Tongu 14.4, Adaklu 13.6, Ketu South 13.4, Keta 13.2, Ketu North 13.07, and North Tongu, registering 11.4 per cent in that order.
However, the data also highlighted a few Districts that have recorded percentages ranging from 11.0 to 5.52 in that trend.
These are Kpando 11.0, Hohoe 10.91, Akatsi North 9.76, Ho West 9.3, North Dayi 9.28, Ho 7.69, and lastly, Afadjato South 5.52 per cent, respectively.
On Maternal health services, the Directorate, however, recorded a decrease in Antenatal care (ANC) registrants by 55.2 per cent in 2024 as compared to 60.3 between January to June 2023.
The review also highlighted a total number of 14 deliveries in 2023 under the ages of 10 to 14 years as compared to 6 in 2024, whilst 182 deliveries were recorded in 2023 as compared to 163 for girls between 15 to 19 years, representing 17 and 16 per cent, respectively for the period under review.
Further checks by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) also revealed that the Akatsi South Municipality has placed second after Central Tongu District, which recorded the highest teenage pregnancy cases, followed by Agotime-Ziope in 2023.
The Alarming situation, according to Mrs Justine Sefakor Alornyo, the Akatsi South Municipal Director of Health Services, required all stakeholders to rise to the task by ensuring pragmatic measures were put in place. On their part, she revealed that the Directorate would do everything possible to mitigate the challenge.
“We are doing community education as well as engaging the media platforms to fight the situation,” she said.
Mrs Alornyo also stated that her outfit had introduced a project dubbed ‘School Health Services’ in the Municipality, where adolescent boys and girls were educated on their health issues.
The trend, according to some stakeholders, who are members of a constituted Risk Communication and Social Mobilisation Sub-Committee (RC &SMC) members under the watch of the Health Directorate, pledged to offer their support by engaging the various communities through educational activities on the canker.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest adolescent birth rate of 97.9 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years. In Western and Central Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa, around 25 per cent of adolescent girls and young women gave birth before age 18. – GNA
News
Ghana-Colombia strengthens ties through diplomatic engagement
In an important diplomatic engagement, the Colombian Ambassador to Ghana H.E. Daniel Garces Carabali paid a courtesy call on the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, at his office in Accra to discuss some key areas of collaboration.
The meeting focused on pressing issues, including security, decongestion of Ghana’s prisons, prison reform programmes, training programmes, improving the welfare of prisoners and enhancing disaster management in the country.
The courtesy call underscores the growing bilateral ties between Ghana and Colombia, building on previous engagements, such as the visit of the Colombian Vice President to Ghana in 2023.
The meeting demonstrates the commitment of both nations to fostering cooperation and addressing shared challenges.
News
Ghana to host African Catholic Journalists from August 10
The Union Catholique Africaine de la Presse (UCAP), also known as the African Catholic Union of the Press, in collaboration with the Catholic Association of Media Practitioners-Ghana (CAMP-G), is set to host its prestigious Triennial Congress from August 10 to 17 August, 2025.
The programme would be held at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Legon, Accra, Ghana.
This landmark event, the most significant gathering of Catholic journalists in Africa, will bring together media professionals, researchers, and experts in digital technology from across the continent and beyond.
The theme for the Congress is: “Balancing Technological Progress and the Preservation of Human Values in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
Congress Highlights
The UCAP Congress 2025 will feature discussions and deliberations on critical issues arising from or related to integral human development, particularly within the framework of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Some of the key sub-themes to be addressed include:Corporate Social Responsibility in Managing the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Values, Deploying AI in Eco-friendly Business Start-ups in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges, Technology and the Reprogramming of Social Reality, Distortion of Reality in Social and Digital Media, Ecological Education and Action Against Unsustainable Exploitation of Natural Resources, and Media and the Promotion of the Recommendations of the Synod on Synodality in Africa.
Participants will include media professionals from both ecclesiastical and lay organisations, media researchers and academics, representatives from the Vatican, government agencies, NGOs, civil society, and the digital technology sector.
Objectives of the Congress
The primary goal of this Congress is to strengthen the capacities of media professionals and educate the public on the necessity of preserving human values amid rapid technological progress. Specific objectives include; Training 100 media practitioners in Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies, with a focus on balancing innovation and human values.
This will include promoting ethics and bioethics in technical research and technological innovations through media.
Advocating for human values such as respect for life, human dignity, charity, solidarity, and human rights and assessing the impact of technological progress to better understand the challenges, risks, and opportunities presented by AI will be part of the objectives.
UCAP is a continental organisation dedicated to promoting communication within the Catholic Church and its partners in Africa. With a mission to foster spiritual growth, collaboration, and responsible journalism, UCAP works to spread the Gospel, uphold human values, and support developmental initiatives across Africa and beyond.
UCAP is an independent, autonomous, non-political, and non-profit organisation comprising African Catholic journalists, communicators, academics, researchers, and institutions in various media fields.
