By Yunus S Saliu
About thirty people including ward Councilors, community and religious leaders, among others were over the weekend trained on comprehensive health education (CHE).
The training taken place at Crab Island Technical and Vocational Education Training Centre in Banjul was part of the training packages of the project – Strengthening Access to Quality Comprehensive Health Education (CHE) in The Gambia.
CHE training which covered different areas on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) will help to strengthening access to quality comprehensive health education of adolescents in-and-out-of-school, especially, taking into consideration ‘vital roles school and community-based comprehensive health education plays in promoting the health and well-being of children and adolescents, presently and in their future.’
Speaking at the opening of the training, Micheal Hamadi Secka of Curriculum Research, Evolution and Development Directorate (CREDD) of Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) said the project is an interesting and education one that is deep and contains lot of information.
Mr Secka confirmed that CHE will have a great impact on the beneficiaries as he described it as a very powerful research that full of facts without any fake information.
As the young ones, in-and-out of school children are the main concern in this project, he therefore called on parents, mothers in particular to try as much as possible to educate their children directly on some basic knowledge of reproductive health education.
“It is better to have strong dialogue with our children on reproductive health matters especially in their puberty ages. Parents should sideline shyness and respect when discussing such issues with their daughters because they should know the fact to avoid going astray and make irredeemable mistakes,” Mr Secka told the adult trainees.
Ms Phebian Ina Grant-Sagnia, Principal Investigator of Strengthening Access to Quality Comprehensive Health Education project dilated on the sensitivity issues surrounds reproductive health. She noted that RH matters are some of the things people conceal within themselves and refuse to share but “they are happening in the society.”
In the past, according to her, RH matters used to be private but now privacy has faded away. She went on that some people are living a life that they don’t know “so we have to discuss some of these matters as regards to reproductive health by letting our kids know where they are going wrong, especially when they have enter their age of puberty onward.”
She added that it is important to guide the children into the right path especially now in the world of technology to avoid had I known.
During the training, some covered areas included unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion; birth control; menstruation; endometriosis; STD/HIV/AIDs; common and causes STIs; genital ulcers; prevention messages; FGM among others.
The comprehensive health education (CHE) under the project – Strengthening Access to Quality Comprehensive Health Education in The Gambia is an implementation research project done by the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) with funding from International Development Research Center (IDRC). And it is meant to enlighten and educate in and out-of-school students on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH).