Group calls for protection of girls from sexual exploitation

Hope for Future Generations (HFFG) is calling on the government to facilitate the removal of cultural practices that expose adolescent girls to sexual exploitation.

According to the Ghana AIDS Commission SP, 2020-2024, three in four new HIV infections among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa are girls while young women between the ages 15 and 24 years are twice likely to get HIV.

UNAIDS Data, 2019 also says about 160 young women aged 15-24 become infected with HIV in the West African Sub-Region each day.

As the world marks the 2020 International Girl Day, themed, ‘My voice, our equal future’, Hope for Future Generations in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Cecilia Senoo called on all key stakeholders especially the government to “facilitate the removal of structural barriers such as gender inequality, gender-based violence that make girls or women vulnerable.”

The NGO highlighted cultural practices such as child, early and forced marriage, gender-based violence, poverty, lack of education as contributing factors making females disproportionately affected by HIV, STIs, and teenage pregnancy.

The NGO also called for reforms in “norms that shun discussion of sexuality and reproduction and norms that oppose the provision of sexual reproductive health rights and services to adolescents.”

Hope for Future Generations (HFFG) is a national community-based, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that seeks to improve the health and socio-economic status of women, children, and young people through innovative and acceptable participatory strategies.