ARHR partnered with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to organize community demand-generation activities in the Ashiedu Keteke Sub-metro in Greater Accra Region. Health workers from Usher Polyclinic provided health talks to community members, including adolescents, offered SRH counseling services, and referred adolescents to health facilities.
Adolescents in Ghana continue to face various challenges related to their sexual and reproductive health and rights. These include unplanned pregnancies, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual violence, and gender-based violence.
While adolescents in Ghana constitute approximately a quarter of the total population, only a few information and services are available. Adolescents continue to make reproductive health choices and decisions based on their knowledge and perceived availability/unavailability of services. These choices can either have negative or positive effects on them and society at large.
Although adolescent-friendly reproductive health services and comprehensive abortion care were instituted in Ghana to increase access to reproductive health and safe abortion services, several adolescents continue to face significant challenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health services. According to the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), about 14% of females aged 15-19 had started bearing children, and about 11% had live births. The 2017 Maternal Health Survey also found that 9.2% of adolescents between the age of 15 and 19 had had intercourse by the age of 15 years.
The demand generation activities allow these adolescents to engage with professionals who educate them and refer them to health facilities for further care.
In all, 466 community members, most adolescents, participated in these educative activities. The KGL Foundation funded the initiative.
