The National Population Council (NPC) has organised a workshop for journalists on how to intensify public awareness creation on population density.
This will help members of the public to make informed decisions about family size, reproduction health, reduce the menace of early parenting and other challenges.
The workshop was also to provide a platform for journalists to make inputs into the redrafting of Reproductive Health Education (RHE) in the country.
The workshop was organised by NPC in Accra recently with a single purpose to review the National Reproductive Health Education Policy Guidelines.
Executive Director of NPC, Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, in her opening remarks, said it has become necessary in each passing day for population issues to be discussed in the media space.
She added that the media play a critical role when it comes public education, persuasion and awareness in achieving a certain behavioural change, hence the engagement.
On this score, she indicated that even though Ghana is one of the countries with a very youthful population (74%), most of them (24%) are exposed to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), due to lack of education.
According to her, poor knowledge of RHE is also impacting the lives of girls negatively, adding over 100,000 girls become teenage mothers each year, at a time they must be in school or engaged in a career training.
“Age-appropriate comprehensive reproductive health education is essential for young people to be assertive to prevent, protect themselves and others against unintended pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, a condition necessary for healthy adolescence and adulthood,” she said.
Dr Appiah said the combined effects of this information gap are social, health, education, political, environment and economic.
She explained that uncontrolled childbirth means surge in population growth, pressure on limited resources, high cost of standard of living, excruciating poverty, and increase in the government budget to fight crime.
Dr Joshua Amo-Adjei, a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, facilitated the workshop on the designing and introduction to RHE.
He informed the journalists that that RHE would be a refined a version of the CSRHE, as it would be designed based on consultation with stateholders – religious groups, traditional leaders, media, NGOs and other players in the education field.
A former Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Professor Kwame Karikari, urged the journalists to prioritise population and reproduction health issues.
