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The problems of adolescence remain a challenge
The Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, an organization focused on youth development, has called on the media fraternity to prioritize the sexual and reproductive health and rights issues of adolescents to address the challenges faced by adolescents.
He said that issues related to adolescent development remained a major challenge and collective efforts were needed by all stakeholders, including the media, to raise awareness among adolescents and influence positive action by duty bearers. .
Ms. Priscilla Nyaaba, Executive Director of YHFG made the call in Bolgatanga at a capacity building training workshop organized by the NGO for selected media professionals from the Upper East and Northeast regions. adolescent sexual reproductive health and rights and report accurately.
The training was part of YHFG’s advocacy initiative called “Evidence for Action: Sexual Health Education Advocacy Project (SHEAP)” sponsored by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU), a nonprofit organization. Profit based in Sweden. Ms Nyaaba explained that the aim of the project was to produce data and evidence to help the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to adopt and implement an integrated adolescent health education curriculum in basic schools. It would also contribute to addressing the challenges young people face, especially regarding their sexual and reproductive health and rights, in order to promote socioeconomic development, reduce poverty, ensure gender parity, and assist in efforts to achieve the SDGs.
To achieve this, Ms Nyaaba said that the YHFG and its partners had been working to strengthen the capacity of key stakeholders, communities and policy makers, to support the advocacy campaign and implement viable strategies to address the issues. of health and sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents.
“It also works to increase awareness about sexual and reproductive health and rights issues among adolescents through information and messages adapted to adolescents and sensitive to gender, strengthen their access to adolescent-adapted health services to empower them to demand and defend their rights, ”she added.
The Executive Director recognized the critical role of the media in the successful implementation of the project and indicated that the capacity building training was to equip staff with the knowledge and skills necessary to accurately report to influence positive actions for sustainable development. .
“Adolescent reproductive health problems have become more visible on the development agenda, but there is still much to do. Therefore, we are committed to developing the capacity of our media professionals to support advocacy efforts on various adolescent health and socioeconomic development issues, including specific sexual and reproductive health and rights issues, such as pregnancy. in adolescence, child marriages, unsafe abortion and sexually transmitted diseases. ” she said.
Mr. Sumaila S. Saaka, Managing Consultant, Founder of Turning Point Development, noted that the media had played a key role over the years in addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights issues; however, there was a need for improvement.
The Consultant explained that negative social norms and cultural practices continued to hamper efforts to address adolescent issues and urged the media to enhance their policing role in the public domain by setting an agenda for positive public discourse.
She said that “journalists can report on the violations and discrimination faced by women and girls in relation to sexual and reproductive health and rights, support the advocacy efforts of duty bearers to address the needs of adolescents, assign resources for policy implementation and partner civil society organizations and communities to help break down the cultural barriers of silence that are so ingrained in many societies. “
