The Asafoatse of Kpalime-Duga, Ebenezer Osai Amoaku, has appealed to the government to remove taxes on sanitary pads to ensure a reduction in the prices of the product to enable parents buy them regularly for their teenage girls.
According to the Chief, it was about time the government showed commitment to efforts being made to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, prevent child marriage, teenage pregnancy and gender-based violent programme to address problems relating to gender in the country.
Togbe Amoaku was speaking at a Community Parent Advocacy Support Groups (CoPAGS) monitoring and sensitisation forum at separate functions at Kpalime-Duga and Todome- Kpeyiborme in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region.
The programme, which was a collaboration between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and UNFPA through the Ministry of Gender, was under the theme: “End Sexual and Gender Based Violence, Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy.”
According to the Chief, the modern sanitary pads were more hygienic, but very expensive, compared to the traditional materials used in the past, which were very cheap and easily acquired, but seen as hygienically unsafe.
The Volta Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Mrs. Thywill Eyra Kpe, said the programme was geared towards the promotion of good communication approaches between parents and their children to foster healthy bonds between them.
Mrs. Kpe asked parents to network effectively, and regularly interact with other groups in other communities to deliberate on the welfare and well-being of their children, especially the girl child, to reduce to the barest minimum teenage pregnancy, early marriage and child birth.
Speaking on the topic: “Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health” a Resource Person and a nurse from the Ghana Health Service, Miss Senam Fiagbenya, advised parents to always engage their children on effective communication to enable parents to easily identify challenges confronting them.
Mrs. Fiagbenya said adolescents were cautious and experience-driven in life, therefore, needed care and attention from parents to draw them closer. This would enable the children to discuss issues bothering them with their parents.
She urged parents to intensify their efforts on sexual health and moral education with their children at home, and asked that they should be prepared at all times to supply the needs of their wards.
