Abstract

PIP: The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) operates the Better Life Options for Girls and Young Women Initiative in Ghana. It supports the expansion of Ghana's YWCA model adolescent reproductive health program which is targeted to high risk urban and rural adolescents. This program has been so successful that it has increased the number of youth it influences 3-fold. The sexuality and family planning education programs and counseling attract the youth. Teachers, school administrators, and parents support the YWCA program because it relates the controversial issue of adolescent sexuality with a rise in girls' school dropout rates. The YWCA's Counselling Centre in Accra is the first youth facility in Ghana to provide family life education and family planning services to in-school and out-of-school youths. The YWCA is also collaborating with an association of truck drivers and young male street vendors to distribute condoms in the marketplace. Community and parental concern over rising teenage pregnancy rates, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infections, and girls leaving school motivates the YWCA to offer this program. In Ghana, 19% of female adolescents have at least 1 child. 75% of these teenagers either did not want or plan these births. In conclusion, the YWCA program hopes to establish a consensus that youth must be helped, both for their good and for the good of Ghana.