The reigning queen of Ghana’s Most Beautiful Vera Oheneba Safoah popularly known as ESI has intensified her fight against teenage pregnancy by calling on religious leaders and organizations to help curb the social menace.
ESI and members of her Pempamsie Foundation visited some mosques and churches in the Central Region to campaign against the high incidence of teenage pregnancy.
At the Abura Ahmadiyya Mosque in Cape Coast, ESI used the opportunity to talk to worshippers about the need for the teenagers to be educated on the consequences of teenage pregancy.
She urged parents to realise the need to be responsible for their wards’ upbringing and not neglect them.
“I plead with you all parents here to make the upbringing of your children a priority. You need to do your best for them so they don’t engage in acts that could end them in all manner of social canker including teenage pregnancy which could destroy the kids’ future,” she admonished.
ESI again charged the leadership of the mosque and all Islamic leaders to include such messages in their sermons to help the fight against teenage pregnancy issues.
The beauty queen also talked about the need for the girls to be given special attention and be encouraged to get better education, adding that child marriage, which is one of the factors that lead to teenage pregnancy, should be condemned.
“Child marriage has been identified as one of the issues that young girls are subjected to and leads to the high incidence of teenage pregnancy, I therefore plead with our leaders here to condemn such acts and rather encourage the girls to go higher in their education,” she said.
On Sunday, ESI joined the congregation of St Lawrence Catholic Church at Abura, a suburb of Cape Coast, to again campaign on the teenage pregnancy issues and pleaded with the Catholic Church in the country to join in the vigorous campaign.
“I know the history of the Catholic Church and its contribution to the Christian faith, education and development in this country.
“I therefore plead with leaders and our clergy to take time to urge parents and their wards to be responsible to help curb the high incidence of teenage pregnancy.”
Leadership of the Church pledged support to help the campaign against teenage pregnancy and early child marriage.
Later in an interview with 3news.com, ESI indicated that the campaign in the church was not the first time but was first time in that community.
“I have already been to some churches with my team in some parts of the Central Region already but it’s the first time here in this Abura community.”
According to her the church and the mosque are one place where most people gather in numbers to worship and tend to absorb almost everything said there “so it’s one of the strategies PEMPAMSIE FOUNDATION came up with for the campaign”.
When asked about how the campaign has impacted society, the anti-teenage pregnancy ambassador indicated that “some teenagers in some communities and schools come to me to confess to me and my team that they have learnt a lot from our campaigns and will be cautious”.
She revealed that her foundation is almost done with recruiting some teenage mothers into vocational training to help them.
“We are almost done with the recruiting of ten ladies to be trained as hair stylists soon to help them get back to life because we believe that the mistake that ended them in teenage pregnancy is not the end.
“For them that is one of our priorities as a Foundation.”
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