International Day of the Girl Child, 50 teenage girls benefit from Teenage Pregnancy Awareness worship

In celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child 2022, we observed the day by training about 50 teenage and adolescent girls about the danger of teenage pregnancy and its impact on their education.

The training benefited girls between the ages of 11 to 18 years old from across Duazon, Lower Margibi County. 

The session was facilitated by Ms. Helen Bongay, the Officer In Charge (O.I.C) of Look to Jesus Medical Center, a longing sanding friend, and support of Just A Girl Initiatives. The training was more practical where the trainer used illustrations to educate the participants about the risks associated with early sex, and what girls can do to keep safe in order to safeguard their future from becoming victims.

International Day of the Girl Child all around the world is set aside to recognize girls’ rights and highlights the challenges girls face around the world. The day focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

Adolescent girls have the right to a safe, educated, and healthy life, not only during these critical formative years but also as they mature into women. The 2021 theme for the Day of the Girl Child was Digital Generation, Our Generation.

During the IDGC, other institutions and organizations would choose to observe the day by staging marches, events where speeches are delivered, and many other festivities, but this year JAGI embarked on providing education for girls mainly due to the fact that teenage pregnancy has and continues to be a national challenge.

At the session, the lead trainer made a link between how girls' exposure to unwanted digital media content exposes girls to early sex which could lead to teen pregnancy. 

Participants learned about the important use and benefits of digital technology, but equally the negative aspects.

Liberia has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world. Girls as young as 9 are exposed to early sex either in the home, community or among their peers in and around schools.  A United Nations report states that 3 out of every 10 Liberian girls get pregnant before the age of 18.

With such startling figures, to us, it means that more education needs to be provided to girls either in peer group meetings, organized events, or in schools and communities.

We went to save the next girl child from becoming a victim of teenage pregnancy!

More of these kinds of engagements are continuing across the various schools where we run our mentoring clubs. When girls are taught about the basic facts of how they can easily get exposed to sex, the early warning signs, and ways to prevent those unwanted moves that expose them to early sex, it prevents them and puts them in a better position for the choices they make and can even save guard their peers.