From Sebastian R. Freiku
The Offinso Municipal Health Directorate has recorded a 4,824 family planning acceptance rate from January to June this year, against 6,115 recorded in 2014. It represents 22.8%.
Mrs. Beatrice Appiah, Municipal Director of Health Services, revealed this at a family planning education forum at Anom-Petuasi in the Offinso Municipality.
It was jointly organised by the Offinso Municipal Health Directorate and the Centre for Development of People (CEDEP), and sponsored by IPAS-Ghana, with the aim of sensitising the over 100 Junior High School students and adults to better their lives by adopting family planning and avoid unsafe abortions.
Mrs. Appiah emphasised the need for married couples to adopt family planning methods to space out their births and ensure quality education for their wards, and urged them to seek technical advice before adopting the system.
The Health Director announced that her outfit, in collaboration with the Offinso Queenmothers Association, is to form Teenage Clubs in schools to educate the members on health reproduction as a way of reducing cases of unsafe abortion.
She stressed that safe abortions could only be performed by medical officers at any public health facility. Mrs. Martha Somuah, Principal Nursing Officer at Offinso, advised the students to abstain from sex and concentrate on their studies.
She also advised them on protection against Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and AIDS by using condoms.
Mr. Peterson Aware Bediako, Programme Officer of CEDEP, disabused the minds of members of the public of perceived negative effects of family planning, and urged them to adopt it at all times.
Nana Nyarko Frempong, Queenmother of Anom-Petuasi, who presided over the programme, commended the organisers and sponsors of the programme, described as very educative.