Some teachers and pupils in the Tamale Metropolis have commended the Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) project for promoting their growth and development.
They said the HCA project had provided the needed platform to address issues affecting adolescents’ health and well-being.
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They were speaking at a Youth Camp – HCA Results Fair 2022, on the theme, “Impactful Stories; Empowering Adolescents for Sexual and Reproductive Health in Secondary Cities”.
It brought together some stakeholders, teachers and pupils of basic schools in the Metropolis and other beneficiaries of the project to reflect on the success stories of the project over the period and to develop strategic mechanisms to facilitate the well-being of adolescents.
Ms Abdul-Mumin Fuseina, a student of Cheshe Junior High School said, “The HCA project through the Adolescents LED photo and video competition has helped my school to acquire computers, which now make Information and Communication Technology (ICT) learning more exciting.”
She added that “We are also empowered through the project on how we can ethically use the device to improve on our studies thus giving us the advantage to excel in school.”
Abdul Rauf Tipagya, another beneficiary, said “The HCA project has empowered us on our Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, which help us to access information on our reproductive health, minimising the incidence of teenage pregnancies, early and forced marriages.”
He commended the project for rescuing victims of early and forced marriages, saying “But for your intervention, some of my school mates would have been forced into early marriage.”
The HCA project is being implemented by the Regional Institute of Population Studies of the University of Ghana in collaboration with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly amongst other partners with support from the Botnar Foundation.
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It seeks to build a multi stakeholder consortium with the capacity to use evidence-based information for strategic programming that promotes adolescents’ health and well-being towards realising the Sustainable Development Goals.
Mrs Clara Lamisi Weobong, Field Programmes Officer, HCA Field Office, Tamale, said the event was to help document real life stories of adolescents under the project and to celebrate their success stories over the period.
She said it was also to help identify other sustainable ways of empowering young people, adding “We also sought to generate ideas and innovations that would further help in addressing issues affecting them.”
Mr Abu Takoro, Basic Schools Coordinator, Tamale Metropolitan Education Directorate, called for more stakeholder engagements to minimise the menace of school drop-out, child marriages amongst others in the area.
Mr Mohammed Ridwan Sadick, Headmaster, Kaladan EP Junior High School ‘Block B’ commended HCA project and partners for implementing programmes that supported the growth and development of adolescents.
