The Ashanti Regional Directorate of the National Youth Authority (NYA) has organised various programmes across its district offices to climax this year’s Valentine Day celebration.
Dubbed “Valentine: A Day for meaningful Youth engagement on sexual and reproductive health,” the series of activities engaged the youth, especially those within the adolescent age bracket, on what they needed to know about their sexual lives.
The programme was targeted at organised youth environments, especially schools, where the young were sensitised on adolescent sex indulgence and its implications on adolescent reproductive health, the effects of early sex, how to detect early warnings of sexual abuse, as well as career development and future ambitions.
Some of the NYA district offices which took part in the various sensitisation programmes in the region included Ejisu, Juaben, Sekyere Kumawu, Adansi South, Offinso, Atwima Nwabiagya, Kwadaso, Oforikrom, Asokwa and Obuasi, among others with resource persons from the Social Welfare Department, Ghana Health Service, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Ghana Education Service (GES) and staff of the NYA.
Miss Barbara Sekyi-Yorke, Obuasi NYA Municipal Coordinator, admonished the students of Boete Junior High School (JHS) ‘B’ to seek positive role models in society as a measure and standard for their own lives.
The Executive Director of Girls Shall Grow, an NGO, Mrs. Louisa Amoah, emphasised the need for young people to be content with the little or monies that their parents provided them to avoid being enticed with goodies by unscrupulous men.
She admonished the students to focus on their education and pursue their ambitions.
Miss Bertha Korang Missah, a nurse at the Asokwa Municipal Health Directorate, provided youth-friendly Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) counseling, and educated the JHS 3 students of Ayeduase Roman Catholic School on ‘prevention of teenage pregnancy’.
She advised the girls to give optimum attention to their education and admonished the boys to aid and encourage the girls by not pestering them for sex.
The Regional Director, Mr. George Orwell Amponsah, in a message for the youth to mark the day, advised them to desist from unhealthy social practices that could result in negative consequences that were detrimental to their personal or future growth.
He said the climax of the Valentine Day celebration should be observed as “a day of giving back to society its positive contributions” that could create safe spaces for everybody, and encouraged them to take advantage of the Youth and Adolescent Health Centers, where they could easily access helpful information, to enhance their life choices.
Mr. Kofi Appiah Asante, Kwadaso Municipal Director of the NYA, advised the students to contact his office for advice on sexual and reproductive health.
Mr. Samuel Gariba, NYA Regional Programmes Officer, also addressed students at the Ohwimase M/A JHS.
From Thomas Agbenyegah Adzey, Kumasi
