Officials in Ghana have raised alarm over an emerging trend where young girls in the central part of the country exchange sex for fish due to poverty.
These young girls then sell the fish to raise funds for their survival and education.
Fishing is the major activity in this part of Ghana like all coastal communities in the west African nation, but poverty is very high among people from these areas.
The Ghana Health Service on Monday said that the practice is a major cause for the increase in teenage pregnancy cases in the region.
One of the victims of the practice told Starr FM in Accra that she had no option than to sell her body to make ends meet.
She is quoted as saying that “I was the one taking care of myself and since there is no help at home, I decided to take a boyfriend and the boyfriend was a fisherman, and he gives me what I want.”
In one of the communities called Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem municipality, 497 teenage pregnancy cases were recorded between January and September of this year.
Officials of the Ghana Health Service and the United Nations Population Fund have met about forty queen mothers in the area to stop the exchange of sex for fish.
Reproductive experts in the Central region are to engage identified groups such as fishermen and small scale farmers on the repercussion of impregnating teenage girls.
Source: Africafeeds.com
