Date: 2021-08-29

.Girls use hanger to abort, group raises the alarm

A network of civil society organisations promoting adolescent and youth reproductive health rights in Kwara State has urged the state government to create a specific budget line for adolescent youth friendly health services.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, on Friday, the representative of the Novel Association for Youth Advocacy (NAYA) in Kwara State, Mrs Oluwatoni Adeleke, said that actions that are backed by finances are still needed by the state government to ensure dedicated, sustainable funding to meet young people's contraceptive needs.

Mrs Adeleke, who said that adolescents are likely to make uninformed decisions about their reproductive health issues when there was no place established for them to get expert advice, called on the state government to set up and inaugurate the state technical working group on adolescent and youth-friendly health services (AYFHS) in all the 193 wards in the state.

"In a situation whereby these adolescents, especially female students in our rural communities, do not have specific and designated access to reproductive health centres with trained health care providers, they resort to using herbal concoction, illicit drugs or even hanger to remove pregnancy for fear of being scolded.

"The need for AYFH centres is more because adolescents are often scared to present their reproductive issues among elderly ones, who could shut them down or are often judgemental in their approach when they visit such health facilities. However, with trained service providers at designated centres to avail these adolescents with informed options, they would be able to make informed decision or choice."

The NAYA official, who lamented that young people in the country lack access to sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, that are tailored to their needs, said that the Kwara state government should integrate adolescent and youth health friendly services to primary healthcare centres in all the 193 wards across the 16 local government areas in the state.

Mrs Adeleke, who is also the CEO of the Olive Community Development Initiative, a nongovernmental group concerned with adolescent reproductive matters, urged the government to build the capacity of at least one healthcare provider on adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights.

"Disaggregate the age group on the health management information system tool to speak for adolescents of 10-14 and young persons of 15-19 years," she said.

Also speaking, the Desk Officer, Kwara State Ministry of Health, Mrs Omolade Gabi, said that the state government already has four centres for adolescent health matters in form of referral centres at secondary health facilities at Adewole, Oja Gboro, specialist hospital, Offa and Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin with service providers.

The state health personnel, who confirmed that adolescents are predominant in grassroots areas of the state, said that the Kwara State government had planned to establish AYFHS centres in at least all primary health care centres in the state.

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