Dr. Samuel Botchway, Senior Medical Doctor, Police Hospital, has called for urgent attention to be given to the alarming rate of teenage pregnancy and teenage motherhood, especially among porters popularly known as kayayei in Accra.
He said there was a need for Non-Governmental Organisations and Corporate entities to help in the development of family planning programmes and campaigns targeted at these teenage groups.
Dr Botchway made this observation during a free health screening organized by the Osu Bethel Seventh- Day Adventist Church to mark its Global Youth Day celebrations.
He said the majority of the kayayei that turned up for the free screening were teenagers or in their early twenties but most of them were either pregnant or a mother of one, two and even three, a situation he described as worrying and needs urgent attention.
Dr Botchway said these groups of people including head porters, and food vendors were very young between the ages of 18 to 25, saying this was a very alarming trend.
The Ghana Health Service District Health Information Management Health System, in 2021 revealed that more than half a million teenagers are on record to have gotten pregnant over the last five years.
It detailed that between 2016 and 2020, about 555,575 between 10 to 19 years got pregnant. He said this confirms that teenage pregnancy was on the ascendancy and needed immediate response.
The Medical Director said this trend was because of their inability to access family planning medication or substances and programmes, as well as lack of parental control, poverty, lack of shelter, school dropouts among others.
