A Youth Advocacy Assembly held in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam (AEE) District has appealed to government to put in place policies and programmes to help solve the problems confronting the youth.
Miss Lordina Ama Amaning, a youth, who played the role of the district chief executive, made the appealed in her address at the second Youth Advocacy Assembly organised in collaboration with the National Youth Council
(NYC) for selected out of school youth in the area, and sponsored by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFIPA), at Ajumako.
The programme was to enable the youth to voice out problems that affect their progress for policy makers to find remedy to them.
A cross-section of people, including traditional authorities, the clergy, assembly members, school children and parents, attended.
Key issues they discussed include teenage pregnancy, low standard of education, child labour, sanitation and inadequate school infrastructures, among many others.
According to Miss Amaning, teenage pregnancy is one of the major health problems facing the girl child in the district and other part of the Central Region.
She said records from the District Health Directorate indicated that a total of 354 girls between the ages of 10-19 got pregnant in 2009.
Miss Amaning said from January to May this year, 142 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 were impregnated.
She described the situation as very alarming and not in the interest of the district, adding that, something must be done to reverse it.
She therefore appealed to the assembly to focus its attention on the youth, to enable the district have an active youth that would contribute to move it forward.
Mr Albert Ato Quainoo, Presiding Member for AEE District Assembly, commended the organizers of the programme, and assured them that the
Assembly would discuss and address issues raised by the Advocacy Assembly.
Mr Mensah Etsibah of the National Youth Council, said with continuous support, the NYC will deliver effectively to nature the youth to become responsibly future citizens.