Ministry To Improve On S*x Education

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The Department of Gender under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has organized a day?s sensitization workshop for queen-mothers and other stakeholders on sexual reproductive health, Fistula and Child Marriage at Dodowa in the Greater-Accra Region.

The workshop also aimed at raising awareness on issues of child marriage and its harmful effects on Female Reproductive Health, and the need to defend the rights and dignity of girls.

It brougth together queen-mothers and stakeholders, including civil society organizations and opinion leaders from the 10 regions across the country.

The workshop also advocated for the abolishing of child marriage, by enforcing the existing laws and to sensitize key stakeholders on women?s reproductive health issues such as fistula, its prevention, treatment and the need for social re-integration.

Participants also discussed the wider social, medical, psychological and legal implications of child marriages and female sexual reproductive health issues, particularly obstetric fistula treatment and prevention.

Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said government through the Ministry seeks to promote a society of integrity that offers equal opportunity for both men and women, and safeguard the rights of children, the vulnerable and the excluded.

She said, the ministry, as part of its mandate, is to collaborate with its stakeholders to ensure the total well-being of all, and that such collaboration necessitated the workshop between the ministry, the United Nation Population Fund and Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs to sensitize queen-mothers and other stakeholders on the effects of female reproductive health, fistula and child marriage.

Nana Oye Lithur said the Gender Ministry in collaboration with the Obstetric Fistula Teams from Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals, and the Mercy Women?s Hospital in Mankessim, is providing treatment and a package for social re-integration for women and girls suffering from obstetric fistula.

She said this is done by a support of funding from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Gender Development Center (EGDC), and that through funds received so far, 68 fistula cases mobilized from across the country, have been treated from November 2013 till now.

Ms Dennia I. Gayle, UNFPA Acting Country Representative, said statistics have shown that there are 20 and 50 per cent of child marriages in the Ashanti Region and Upper East Region respectively.

She said the UNFPA is ready to partner government to erase the challenges involved in combating fistula, female reproductive health and child marriages, to enable Ghanaian Girls get better education and develop to build the human resource of the country.

Nana Frimpong Anokye Ababio, Omanhene of Agona and Chairman of the workshop, urged women to take the challenge to minimize fistula and child marriage

He appealed to the Ministry Gender, Children and Social Protection, to develop a policy that would provide regular screening for women and girls with fistula problems free of charge.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Nana Agyakoma Difie the second, Asante Mampong-hemaa, urged the Ministry to build the capacity of queen-mothers on sex education.

She said sex education was one of the major concepts that could be used to combat the situations in the various traditional areas.

Nana Difie said parents must understand that children have the right to their choices, and those rights must be respected in line with the human right laws of Ghana.

She appealed to the Ministry and Government to make available logistics for female traditional authorities to improve on sex education, adding, ?Sex education in our basic schools must be intensified.? GNA

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