Labone SHS girls given health talk (11/5/09)

SAVE Our Women International (SOWI) in collaboration with Ipas, both non-governmental organisations (NGOs), concerned with issues of women have organised a sensitisation health talk programme for female students at the Labone Senior High School in Accra.
The programme formed part of SOWI's activities for 2009 to help fight unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and the prevention of deaths among ladies in high schools.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SOWI, Ms Juliet Asante said it was very important for young ladies to be educated on sex and be given the platform to discuss it, since they knew a lot of things parents thought they were ignorant about.
She said SOWI was set up to educate and provide support to female fertility health, with special focus on unsafe abortions.
As part of its objectives, SOWI sought to raise public awareness on the dangers of unsafe abortions and also provide counselling services to victims.
She said it was in that light that SOWI and IPAS were setting up SOWI Mentoring Clubs (SMCs) in schools to help young ladies know their reproductive rights and take better charge of their lives.
Ms Asante added that the establishment of SMCs would also form an empowering drive that would encourage young ladies to focus on their education to ensure self worth.
A Counsellor, Mrs Paulina Siaw Akoto Debrah, took the students through issues such as prevention of pregnancies which included abstinence and the use of family planning methods, and bad practices in abortions which could lead to the damage of the womb and even death.
She advised the students to abstain from sex which could lead to unwanted pregnancies and to concentrate on their studies in order to achieve their objectives in life.
If they indulged in sexual activities, she said they could be psychologically affected when they mistakenly got pregnant and would not be able to concentrate on their studies.