SHARE Project strengthens WASH service, reduces teenage pregnancy in Bongo District
The SHARE Project consortium has, since 2021, undertaken key interventions to advance gender equality by improving access to sexual and reproductive education and gender-responsive healthcare for young people in the Bongo District.
The Bongo District Health Directorate has praised the impact of the Sexual Health and Reproductive Education (SHARE) Project on health service delivery in the district, highlighting its contributions to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) interventions and adolescent reproductive health initiatives.
The SHARE Project consortium has, since 2021, undertaken key interventions to advance gender equality by improving access to sexual and reproductive education and gender-responsive healthcare for young people in the Bongo District.
The District Director of Health Services in the Bongo District, Estella Abazesi, speaking at a two-day workshop in Bolgatanga held on August 14 and 15 to review WASH Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), said the project has significantly improved health service delivery, particularly in reducing teenage pregnancy rates.
“The SHARE project has been impactful in the Bongo District. We have worked with them in the area of adolescent reproductive health. And for the period we have been working with them, I can say that the proxy indicator, which is the number of teenage pregnancies recorded in the district, has progressively been going down.”
“For 2023, for instance, teenage pregnancies accounted for 12% of all the pregnant women we registered. For 2024, this figure reduced to about 10%, which means that in every 100 women, only 10 are teenagers who are pregnant.” She elaborated.
Abazesi further noted the impact of WASH facilities in the district provided by WaterAid, a member of the SHARE Project consortium.
“WaterAid has been a major partner when it comes to WASH infrastructure for our health facilities. Some of our Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds were established without much consideration for WASH facilities, so WaterAid came in timely to bridge this gap.” She said.
She pledged the Health Directorate’s commitment to sustain the project’s gains in adolescent reproductive health, WASH IPC infrastructure maintenance, and the overall provision of quality health services.
About SHARE Project
SHARE is a five-year (2021-2026), gender transformative project implemented in a consortium led by Right To Play in partnership with the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and WaterAid, with technical support from FHI 360. It aims to advance gender equality by improving access to sexual and reproductive education and gender-responsive health care for young people, especially girls and young women. SHARE is supported by the Government of Canada and funded by Global Affairs Canada.
In the Upper East Region, the project is being implemented in the Bongo, Builsa North, and the Kassena-Nankana Municipal and Kassena-Nankana West District.
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