By Hassan I. Conteh

The Communications Admin Specialist at the National Secretariat of Teenage Pregnancy, Victor Karim, says recently at a government workshop that girls especially teenagers should be looked after properly by their parents or guardians in order not to get pregnant early.

He was speaking to newsmen on the popularization of an adolescent strategic communications document which seeks to prevent teenage pregnancy and early marriage in Sierra Leone.

“Most of the parents don’t check out their girls on their menstrual cycles and about whose peers they should hang up with or move with in our different communities,” he said.

He added that no sooner a girl-child starts learning from their matured teenagers who have already taken bad life in society than these spoiled teenagers would end up polluting the innocent young girls in society.

“The bad older girls will contaminate the very younger girls to take up sex life early than expected which can lead to their loss of life.”

“So it is always good for you to monitor your daughters of which friends they are moving along with in schools and at home,” he said.

Sierra Leone, in 2020, has a record of 12.4% young adolescents population, according to National Teenage and Adolescents Secretariat in Sierra Leone.

And currently, report says, there are about 640 million girls & women alive today had married before they are 18 years.

This means that there are more girls born today than they were before. And most are at risk of getting pregnant early if they’re not protected by the government, parents and the community.

To prevent girls as little as ten, twelve and fourteen from getting pregnant early, Mr Karim said that is why the government has been passing out several regulations in parliament.

These include: The Hands off Our Girls Policy in 2018 and 2025-2030 National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy which are all launched by the government of Sierra Leone to minimize or end the rate of adolescent pregnant girls and early marriage in the country.