MONROVIA-The Country Manager of DKT International, Isaac Opuku Lamptey has urged young people, especially girls to focus on their education in order to be productive citizens and contribute positively to the country’s development.
According to Mr. Lamptey, DKT has been in Liberia for the past two years providing health care services to hundreds of Liberians in the area of family planning and contraceptive medications to reduce teenage pregnancy amongst young women and girls.
He said such an initiative is intended to help the youthful female population to stay in school as a means for them to acquire their education.
The DKT International boss was speaking recently when the leadership of the Society for the Promotion of Peace, National Reconciliation and Reunification (SPPNRR) honored his organization.
He indicated that some of the major challenges in carrying on their duties as an international nongovernmental organization around the country have been logistics and road.
Lamptey further said his organization is committed to ensuring that every woman gets contraceptives and every child that is born in Liberia should be attended as long DKT is in the country providing contraceptive medication to women.
Lamptey also expressed gratitude to President George M. Weah-led government for giving the private sector the opportunity to invest in the health sector of the country.
Lamptey said during his recent visit in Cesstor City, River Cess County, he saw a new constructed hospital and Gbarpolu County with the same construction work of new hospitals ongoing there which will address the health needs of thousands of residents and citizens of that parts of the country.
He added that they are able to contribute significantly to a modern contraceptive for young women and girls.
He further disclosed that Liberia has a very high rate of maternal motility which according to him, is contributing to the number of death in the country.
Lamptey said they are collaborating with the Ministry of Health and health service providers to meet the high demands of family planning medications which would help to reduce teenage pregnancy in various learning institutions across the country.
‘’We are working to increase contraceptive products and also producing contraceptive products, We have made contraceptive products widely accepted when we started, for example, contraceptive was restricted in the little environment, but with support and other collaborated partners, we operate policy frameworks and today, contraceptive is widely amiable to every woman in Liberia who uses contraceptive’’, he said. .
Speaking early, the Chief Executive Officer of the Society for the Promotion of Peace, National Reconciliation and Reunification (SPPNRR) Mayfield Copson lauded DKT International for coming to Liberia to provide medical and health services to the Liberian people.
Mr. Copson said since the coming of DKT International to Liberia, it has benefited immensely from the distribution of contraceptive and family planning drugs to girls and young women throughout the country.
He called on DKT International Liberia to extend its programs to all schools in the fifteen subdivisions of Liberia to reduce teenage pregnancy.
Alphonso Toweh
Has been in the profession for over twenty years. He has worked for many international media outlets including: West Africa Magazine, Africa Week Magazine, African Observer and did occasional reporting for CNN, BBC World Service, Sunday Times, NPR, Radio Deutchewells, Radio Netherlands. He is the current correspondent for Reuters
He holds first MA with honors in International Relations and a candidate for second master in International Peace studies and Conflict Resolution from the University of Liberia.