Afrikids; a Child Rights Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) has revealed that the spike in teenage pregnancy in especially parts of the Upper East Region is as a result of the love of young ladies for smartphones.
Apart from smartphones, the report adds that these young girls are said to feel obliged to pay back for the phones, data and credit provided to them by mostly men.
Worrying, however, is the fact that the young girls are unaware of the fact that giving sex in return for these things have grave consequences for their lives including teenage pregnancy and being infected with Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Speaking on a current research on the spike in teenage pregnancy in parts of the Upper East Region, the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer of Afrikids; a child rights NGO Daniel Kpabitey said “In those days when you have to write a letter to tell somebody that you love the person, it took ages. These days, it is faster with the mobile phone. It is just a matter of dialing and then we agree on when to meet. The phone is very important as far as the study is concerned”.
“Some of the parents do not even know that the children have phones because they [the children] hide them. When we even asked them about sanitary pads, some of the girls told us that the source of the money for the sanitary pads is from the boys,” Mr. Kpabitey said.
On her part, Project Coordinator at Afrikids Madam Cecilia Awiah indicated that now it is worrying to note that young girls feel obliged to give sex in exchange for smartphones, data and credit.
She said as a result of this, most young men leave school in search of jobs that will provide them with monies to buy phones for their girlfriends in order to be given sex.
Survey
Afrikids survey was titled ‘Sister for Sister Project Baseline Findings’.
The survey was conducted to help stakeholders understand the root cause of the spikes in teenage pregnancies in target districts [Bolgatanga Municipality and the Builsa North Municipality], especially, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The survey targeted 98 JHS 1 and 2 girls in the two districts aged between 12 and 18 years.
The survey found that 66.3 percent of girls aged between 12 and 18 could have access to a phone anytime they wanted to. The survey also found that 25 percent of the respondents actually owned mobile phones.
