Stakeholders have said that the enhanced enforcement of the child rights law and the law against gender-based violence would help address the growing menace of teenage pregnancy in many parts of the country.
Their position is part of the recommendations of a communiqué issued by the stakeholders at a one-day forum on the intervention to reduce the menace of teenage pregnancy in Ekiti State.
Organised by the Women’s Health and Action Research Centre, WHARC, in collaboration with Ekiti Development Foundation, EDF, it had as its theme ‘Stemming the Tide: Building Community Response in Reducing Teenage Pregnancy in the State.’
The communiqué, among others, said as part of the ways to address the issue of teenage pregnancy in Ekiti State, all concerned are to scale up existing high profile socio-economic empowerment of women.
They recommended that stakeholders should either encourage the sustenance of the rehabilitation package for teenage mothers to continue their education or their capacity for economic empowerment.
Earlier, participants at the forum identified some of the causes and symptoms of teenage pregnancy in Ekiti State to include dysfunctional families and poor parent-child communication on sexuality issues.
While also identifying exploitation as a possible factor, the forum also said poverty at both the family and the community level combined with high level of ignorance of sexuality education were some of the causes of the growing menace of teenage pregnancy in Ekiti State.
Over 50 participants attended the forum, which held at the Lady Jibowu Hall, Government House ground, Ado-Ekiti, including EreluBisiFayemi, wife of the state governor, and president of Ekiti Development Foundation, Dr. Friday Okonofua, WHARC programme adviser and member, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Wilson Imongan, WHARC’s deputy director.