Buchanan, Grand Bassa County – The Family Health Division of the Ministry of Health on Monday, April 8, 2019, began its Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Training for service providers in Grand Bassa County.
Report By Elton wrionbee Tiah, FPA Contributor
The training is aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy and encouraging adolescent girls to make use of health facilities.
The training is being funded by Global Financing Facilities (GFF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
Mrs. Bentoe Zoogley Tehougue, Director of the Family Health Division of the Ministry of Health, told FrontPageAfrica that the training brings together Family planning service providers from all five districts of Grand Bassa County.
She said six counties – Grand Kru, River Gee, Sinoe, Gbarpolu, Rivercess, and Grand Bassa – are the first to benefit from the training program.
“We want to see a reduction of teenage pregnacy, change of behaviors of adolescents and increase in service utilization amongst adolescents,” Mrs. Tehougue said.
“At the end of this training we want our service providers to serve as mentors for adolescents by encouraging to make use of health facilities”.
The Family Health Director pointed out that the increased in teenage pregnancy and low utilization of Health facilities by adolescents is due to peer pressure.
“Many of our adolescents are getting pregnant due to what they capture from friends and the social media. We can only reduce this if we talk to the adolescents and encourage them to make use of health facilities,” she said.
Dr. Anthony Tucker, Grand Bassa County Health Officer, expressed confidence that there will be a reduction of teenage pregnancy amongst adolescent girls in the county after the training.
“I trust these service providers that are undergoing this training; they are going to help talk to our young kids,” Tucker said.
He said that there have been misconceptions amongst adolescent girls that “family planning creates infections and stops them from bearing a child”.
“I want adolescents not to listen to speculations but to take advantage of the services, ” the CHO said.
The participants of the training are mostly young girls have expressed serious interest in the training which is expected to come to an end on April 13, 2019.