The Chief Executive of the Suhum Municipal Assembly, Mrs Margret Darku Darkwah, has appealed to parents to agree to take care of their grandchildren delivered by their daughters in school to enable them continue their education and concentrate on their studies .
She explained that the educational system of the country allows students who got pregnant to return to school after delivery and urged parents to take advantage of the situation to ensure that pregnancy did not make their daughters to drop out of school.
Mrs Darkwah said there were many prominent women in the country who delivered their first born while in school, but because they had parents and relatives who took care of the children for them to continue their education, they were able to achieve their dream ambitions in life.
The Municipal Chief Executive was speaking at the commissioning of the Gojiase Community Health Planning Services (CHPS) Compound which was built under the Protection of the lives of women in the reproduction age project at Gojiase near Suhum in the Eastern Region.
The four year project, which was started in 2018 is aimed at providing access to quality health care for pregnant women and children and help reduce teenage pregnancy in the project area.
The Project is being implemented by the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) and the Japanese International Cooperation in Family Planning(JOICFP) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service(GHS) and the Suhum Municipal Assembly and funded by the Takidu Pharmaceutical Company of Japan.
Mrs Darkwah called on the community to treat the nurses who would be posted to work at the facility well, to make them happy to stay in their quarters and work.
She said if the environment for the work of the nurses become unbearerable and they decide to stay outside the community and come to work at the facility during working hours, when pregnant women needed their services at mid-nights, they would not be around and the purpose for constructing the facility would be defeated.
She said the Gojiase CHPS Compound was the third to be constructed since she assume office almost three and half years ago.
Ms Abena Adubea Amoah, Executive Director of PPAG, said since the project started in 2018, over GHC500,000.00 had been spent.
She appealed to parents in the area to talk to their daughters to help reduce teenage pregnancy in the area.
Ms Amoah expressed regret that, many Junior High School girls in their final year were not able to join their colleagues to prepare for their final examination when they were asked to start school after the COVID-19 break because of teenage pregnancy.
Mr Emmanuel Obeng of the Japanese Organization for Cooperation In Family Planning, urged pregnant women in the area to visit the clinic for their anti-natal and post-natal services and deliver their babies at the facility.
He advised the management of the facility to put in place a maintenance plan to help the facility to stay long to serve the people.
Mr Obeng urged the community to help plant trees on the compound of the facility to provide shade for the pregnant women who would visit the facility and also to help protect the building and the environment.
Earlier in a welcoming address, Mr Kwame Ofosu, the Suhum Municipal Director of Health said the project had helped to train health volunteers, peer educators and staff of the Ghana Health Service to help improve the quality of health care delivery in the Municipality.
GNA