Saturday March 2nd is “She Decides Day’. This is an opportunity to showcase solidarity and strength by demonstrating individual and collective commitment to the rights of women and girls locally, nationally and globally to have control of their bodies, everywhere (read more).
Millions of women worldwide still do not have acces to contraception. In the north of Ghana, young people also still do not have easy acces to contraceptives, or they feel uncomfortable about obtaining or using them. This is striking, since the Ghanaian government has been promoting condom use for more than 10 years now, and research as long ago as 1997 showed that the Ghanaian youth feel embarrassed about buying and carrying condoms (Van der Geugten et al. 2017).
Most unmarried Ghanaian males and females aged 15–24 reported to have heard of various contraceptive methods. However, a substantial proportion of them lack sufficient knowledge about the use of contraceptives, and use contraceptives inconsistently. Condom use among sexually active young people is low in Ghana. For example, in 2014, only 32% of sexually active unmarried females aged 15–19 years used modern contraceptives. Condom use was reported by less than 40% of males in 2008. There are various reasons for this, such as their low risk perception, a lack of adequate access, and their concerns about costs and confidentiality. Other contraceptives—such as pills, injections, and female condoms—were hardly used or mentioned by adolescents during the interviews in the north of Ghana in Bolgatanga Municipality in 2010-2012. Moreover, the safety of these other contraceptives was questioned by some of the girls, who feared they can cause infertility (Van der Geugten et al. 2017).
The Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana in Bolgatanga carries out various projects to educate adolescents about sexual and reproductive health, including sexual rights and contraceptives.