Stakeholders drawn from the whole district who included opinion leaders, Chiefs, assembly members, school children, youth groups Parents, PTA chairmen and NGOs among others, attended the meeting which was organized by the Bosome Freho District assembly. 

The purpose of the forum was to equip the assembly with first-hand information about the challenges and needs of the issue particularly because it has become a menace in the area also collating the views of the stakeholders which would help fashion a strategic plan to pave the way for the district to deal with the incidence of teenage pregnancy issues in the area. 

In a welcome address, the Bosome Freho District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Yaw Danso underscored the important role the Assembly would play in the elimination or reduction of the menace in the district adding that the Assembly’s role was to co-ordinate the activities of all departments and units and implement them.

He said to facilitate programme, the assembly will be collaborating with all stakeholders in the district to ensure that measures are put in place to reduce to the barest minimum, the incidence of teenage pregnancy in the district.

He said the forum was a manifestation of the assembly commitment to ensure that the teenage pregnancy menace that has become a canker in the district is eliminated or reduced to minimum.

He lamented that the district recorded the highest teenage pregnancies in the Ashanti region from 2014 to 2017 that has affected first, the development and also drive way workers from the district and called on all hands on desk to deal with the menace in the area.

The DCE noted that the Assembly is the final delivery of policies from the government as an agent and that the Assembly would form a committee to put all the views collated from this forum together as a work plan for implementation.

He urged parents to be responsive and for the public to be supportive in keeping their roles as gate keepers of the society.

Hon. Yaw Danso said the NPP government and its development partners are doing their best to improve girl child education for girls to realize their fullest potential in life.

"If we allow teenage pregnancy to wipe away these investments, we are but shooting ourselves in the foot," he noted.

He added that the purpose of the government policies in education sector like the Free Senior High School and other laudable policies, would be defeated if the issues are not tackled immediately.

Mr. Clement Nti Boateng, the District Director for Health and the Chief Executive officer of CIRE-Development an NGO, Mr. Francis Sarkodie made presentations on the prevention of teenage pregnancy and underlined some interventions that could help bring the issue under control. They suggested to the assembly to make sure a workable plan is developed to tackle the menace no matter the situation. 

According to them, if care is not taken the work force in the district would lost to army robbers, among others and called parents, opinion leaders, chiefs, churches, and mosques to support the assembly to come  out with the  final  solutions that could help bring down the issue of teenage pregnancy in the district.  

They entreated traditional authorities whom they described as the embodiment of their cultural heritage, to consider the length of time used for the performance of funeral rites.