Two NGOs Embark On Reducing Teenage Pregnancy

By T. Saye Goinleh

In a bid to help reduce teenage pregnancy among street kids in communities in Liberia, two local nongovernmental oragnizations (NGOs) in the country have launched a vigorous campaign aimed at alleviating the problems that have been affecting young girls especially in urban areas.

According to Street Kids-Liberia and Citizens’ Action Committee, the program started in 2017 and is expected to run through 2018 with increased awareness to tackle the situation with an initial focus on the Township of Gardnerville on the Somalia Drive in Monrovia.

Disclosing the strategy of the campaign to the New Republic while on awareness in the Township, Street Kids-Liberia executive director, Amos Harris and the project manager of Citizens’ Action Committee, Richard Kerkular said in collaboration with some residents of the Community they are somewhat succeeding to get the message across on the dangers of teenage pregnancy among young girls.

Richard and Amos indicated that in cordial partnership with local community leaders in Gardnerville, they have embarked on an energetic sensitization drive which seeks to educate every girl child in an attempt to empower them to realize the importance of education and adopt lifestyles that would protect them against teenage pregnancy.

The two heads of local organizations said their ambition for the project is to ensure that it extends beyond December, 2018 so that teenage pregnancy can be eliminated or drastically reduced in various communities that will be targeted by the team during the course of the crusade.

They said the project was particularly initiated based on a survey carried out by the two groups which revealed that there are many men who impregnate the young girls in the society and fail to assume responsibilities for their conditions thereby abandoning them and leaving the burdens on their parents and close relatives in the family to cater to them.

They went on to explain that they have also observed that since the start of the awareness, some of the girls maybe out of ignorance compounded by poverty in their homes at times driven mainly by peer pressure are pushed into such situations that make them early mothers and potential house wives.

They expressed the hope that with intensive education in the various localities, this would help to enlighten parents and young girls to understand their respective roles that will assist in addressing the menace in the general public.