A non-governmental organization, Novel Association for Youth Advocacy, with support from Population Reference Bureau have commenced sensitisation on family planning for adolescents in Nasarawa state.
Speaking at a One-day NAYA chat with Journalists on Thursday in Lafia, Coordinator of NAYA in the state, Mary Ashenanye, explained that the campaign on family planning became necessary due to the high rate of unwanted pregnancies among young people in the state.
She said, “The aim of this programme is to increase participation of young people in accessing family planning and reproductive health information and services because youths and adolescents aged 10-24 years are facing serious health challenges ranging from high rate of rape, teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS”.
Ashenanye appealed to health practitioners in the state to be friendly with adolescents who patronize their facilities so that they will not be scared of revealing their health challenges to them.
“I am appealing to health practitioners in the state to be friendly with the adolescents who visits their hospitals and clinics so that they can be comfortable and willing to discuss issues that concerns their health with them. I also want to use this opportunity to call on the health practitioners to make their services affordable, accessible and sustainable for the youths,” she added.
In her speech, Representative of the Nasarawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Magdalene Dominic, urged adolescents in the state to participate in family planning in order to avoid unwanted pregnancies, noting that the services are free and friendly.
“We are targeting married adolescents in this programme but we are also attending to the unmarried adolescents because we are losing them due to peer pressure and false information they receive from friends.
“Our services are free and friendly. Even if they do not want to take the services in a family planning method, they can go to a facilities to ask any question about their health and they will be guided correctly. We are hoping to scale up our services across the 13 LGAs of the state so that we can be able to reach more adolescents in the state,” she said.
