Group picture of participants of the Adolescents’Learning Forum, Legislators and Delegates Conference
Story by: Ishmael Barfi
Key stakeholders in the population, development and wellbeing of adolescents has reiterated the need for government of Ghana to once again to either review or abolish the taxes on sanitary pads to enable vulnerable adolescent girls to have access to it.
The call by the key stakeholders is believed to aid local manufacturers of these sanitary pads to produce more at standard prices hence affordable for the ordinary adolescent girl.
The call for the abolishment of taxes on sanitary pads was made by one of the key stakeholders in the population, development and wellbeing of Adolescents’ , United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Program Assistant for Gender, Ms. Abigail Edem Hunu at a two-day workshop.
The two- day workshop dubbed ‘Adolescents’ Learning Forum, Legislators and Delegates Conference was organized by the UNFPA for adolescents across the country especially for regions with high child marriage and teenage pregnancy cases.
The two-day workshop was to give the Adolescents’ the platform to interact among themselves as well as with their Members of Parliament (MPs) hence mentorship intergenerational discussion on issues affecting them as adolescents.
Group picture of participants of the Adolescents’Learning Forum, Legislators and Delegates Conference
The urgency of the call according to Program Assistant for Gender at the UNFPA, Abigail Hunu is to curb the menace of Adolescent girls accepting men’s sexual demands due to their inability to afford sanitary pads due to its high cost on the market.
This she explained is hindering the school attendance and public participation of these adolescent girls in their communities.
“We have interacted with the adolescents and we are having complaints of sex for sanitary pads which we are working hard to prevent from happening”, she noted.
Adding, “ Adolescent girls are being taken advantage of, thus been raped and getting pregnant”.
She lamented that, “Now, I’m just thinking of the implications of that for the vulnerable people in the society saying, a sanitary pad which was 10 Ghana cedis some few months ago now ranges from between 18 Ghana cedis and 22 Ghana cedis for one piece and you know, a lady can use as many as three pads in a month”.
Stressing, “ so how many of these adolescent girls can afford sanitary pads with or without the support of their guardians”.
Ms. Hunu also bemoaned about the irresponsible conduct of some parents who do send their teenage daughters to live with men either in marriage or as co-habitants who have impregnated these teenage girls.
“So basically an adolescent getting pregnant and then her caregiver or parents sack her to go and live with the person that is responsible for her pregnancy” she said.
The above she noted is what is termed as cohabitation, where you are living with someone, but you’re not married.
“At least that daughter should be 18 years and above so our mandate as UNFPA is to ensure that, every pregnancy is wanted, every child is safe and that, every young person grows up to reach his or her full potentials”, she reiterated.
To ensure this is achieved, Ms. Abigail Edem Hunu revealed that, boys were also engaged at the workshop explaining that, the boys and men are usually the perpetrators of defilement, rape and other form of abuses against women and girls.
“It is very critical for us to begin to deliberately deepen our engagement with the men and boys to ensure that, they become allies in our quest as a nation as well as a global platform that seeks to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
“ We know that, we come from a very patriarchal society where the men are seen as the head of the family and women and girls don’t really have voices”, she noted.
Whiles in some communities and homes she narrated is the men who decides what food a woman should buy as well as what she wears.
Some of the adolescent girls displaying their crafts at the Adolescents’Learning Forum Legislators and Delegates Conference held in Accra.
For her, Dr. Doris Aglobitse, the head for Gender Unit at the UNFPA pointed out that, her outfit has prioritized skills and empowerment projects for adolescent girls as a way to end child marriage.
Emphasizing that, “If we want to end issues of child marriage and teenage pregnancy, it is very critical that, we engage the vulnerable adolescents with skills and knowledge”.
Furthermore, she was of the view that, “we need to get to a stage where every adolescent girl can get to an age where she can decide who, when to marry as well as how to go about that marriage”.
The Adolescents’ Learning Forum, Legislators and Delegates Conference, Dr. Doris Aglobitse noted is one of the initiatives UNFPA an UNICEF have put together to empower adolescents with skills and positive knowledge from one another and interaction with legislators of their respective constituencies.
The Adolescents’ Learning Forum, Legislators and Delegates Conference brought together Adolescents from the six regions UNFPA/UNICEF are implementing a joint project since 2018 to eradicate child marriage and teenage pregnancy.
These six regions are the Northern, Upper East and West,Volta, Central and the Greater Accra.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
