The implementation of the Safety Net Programme, and the Girls’ Iron-Folic Acid Tablet Supplementation (GIFTS) initiative has helped to reduce teenage pregnancy at Pishigu in the Karaga District of the Northern Region.
It has also reduced the school drop-out rate amongst adolescent girls in the area.
As of the close of September 2024, the community had not recorded a single teenage pregnancy case in its Pishigu health facility.
This became known when a team from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) visited the Pishigu Health Centre in the area to learn more about the impact of the two interventions.
UNICEF, in 2019, complemented the efforts of the government and Plan International Ghana, an international NGO, by providing logistical support and other resources including training of health staff to improve maternal health services and inclusive education in the area.
Plan International Ghana also constructed an adolescents’ corner at the Pishigu Health Centre to help reduce stigma amongst adolescents in accessing reproductive health services and to reduce girls resorting to unsafe abortion, which posed a threat to their reproductive health and rights.
UNICEF, as part of the support, also donated a motorbike to the facility to facilitate newborn care services.
Madam Rita Akabata, a Senior Staff Midwife at the Pishigu Health Centre, speaking during the team’s visit to the facility, said prior to the implementation of the interventions in the area, adolescent girls were shy to patronise health services related to their reproductive health.
She said the health staff, at the time, also lacked adequate knowledge in providing adolescent-friendly reproductive health services, adding “Health staff, prior to the intervention, were not approachable.”
She said due to the interventions, the situation had changed, enabling adolescent girls to boldly access reproductive health services at the health facility resulting in a drastic reduction in teenage pregnancy in the area.
The Safety Net Programme, designed by the Ghana Health Service, is geared towards providing support for girls, who get pregnant and opt to keep their pregnancies to have safe antenatal, delivery and postnatal period, whilst ensuring that they continue with their education/vocational ambitions.
The GIFT initiative is implemented for both in-school and out-of-school adolescent girls by giving them iron-folic acid tablet supplements to reduce anaemia amongst them.
Madam Akabata said teenage pregnancy cases in the community reduced from 13 per cent in 2021 to 1.4% in 2023, adding so far, no case of teenage pregnancy was recorded this year in the area.
She said the interventions also enhanced the acceptance rate of family planning amongst adolescents increasing from 10% in 2021 to 34% in 2023.
She said the school drop-out rate amongst adolescent girls also reduced from 25% in 2020/2021 to 6% in 2022/2023 academic year.
She said in support of the interventions, the community leaders enacted by-laws to punish those who would impregnate teenage girls in the area.
The Pishigu community, which hitherto, had no record of any adolescent pregnant girl returning to school during pregnancy or even after delivery prior to the inception of the interventions, now have two adolescent girls, who got pregnant and stayed in school until they delivered their babies and continued with their education.
Ms Latifa Salifu, a 17-year-old, who is one of the two adolescent girls, got pregnant at age 15 whilst she was in junior high school.
Latifa, through the support of the health staff, who were supported by UNICEF, successfully went through antenatal care and subsequently delivered safely, and returned to school, and she is currently in a senior high school.
Miss Memuna Adam, another resident, got pregnant at age 17, and at age 19 now, has also continued her education, with support from UNICEF.
Miss Adam thanked UNICEF and partners for the support, saying that it had helped her to maintain her dream of becoming a teacher.
Madam Porbilla Ofosu Apea, Health and Nutrition Officer, UNICEF, Tamale Field Office, was impressed with the impact of the interventions in the community and called for more collaboration to ensure that other adolescents were supported to enhance their holistic growth and development.
Source: GNA
