Seye Joseph
Updated: With World Health Organisation’s statistics account of 22.9 percent of teenage pregnancies in Nigeria among countries of the world and more than 16 million girls, between the ages of 15 years and 19 years, as well as over two million girls under 15 years give birth every year worldwide, Frontidá Health Foundation, FHF – a public health organization involved in promoting health and wellbeing of young persons has embarked on awareness campaign to sensitise residents of Ikorodu area of Lagos State on the prevention of teenage pregnancy.
The Executive Director, Kemisola Ajide said the project was initiated based on the research that was conducted by the organisation.
According to him, “a need assessment was carried and it was found there is the need to adequately educate and build a better future for young persons in Majidun community.
She said further that the future of the girls that are majority in secondary school hang in limbo.
“In a community like ours, growing up in a family that can barely pay her tuition fees, a lady incidentally finds herself carrying an unwanted baby, the idea of that formal education that her parents nurture for her becomes a fallacy”, he narrated.
“A family that struggles to put food on the table for members to eat now has an additional burden of taking care of the soon-to-be mother and her unborn child. Discrimination takes its position in the court of the unfortunate event, abandonment and desertion become her two popular lines of grief”, he said.
Ajide further explained that the cause of teenage pregnancy boils down to low socio-economic status with economic hardship rocking the society. “We can’t make everyone rich, but we can build self-esteem, life skills, positive sexual behaviour and nurture numerous young persons who would dream and live a great future.”
“We can put a stop to the various socio-economic and health problems of teenage pregnancy; every year, over 3 million girls from age 15 to 19 years are exposed to unsafe abortion because of unwanted teenage pregnancy, we sure can drastically reduce this number”, he said.
It was accounted that the sensitization was graced by over a hundred teenagers that were adequately informed about positive sexual behavior with two speakers, questions and anser sessions and a counseling sessions for already pregnant teenagers.
On the account the rate of school dropouts because of teenage pregnancy, Erubu promised that they would be offering support to either get them back in school or help them learn a trade which would help redeem the future that had looked dimmed.
She sought for support from government, private organizations and international donors for help to build and secure our future.
Erubu further explained that the cause of teenage pregnancy boils down to low socio-economic status with economic hardship rocking the society. “We can’t make everyone rich, but we can build self-esteem, life skills, positive sexual behaviour and nurture numerous young persons who would dream and live a great future.”
