July 11, is World Population Day and the focus this year is on adolescent pregnancy.It’s estimated that 16 million teenage girls give birth every year. Many are in African or other developing countries.The United Nations says many teenage girls suffer from complications during child birth that lead to disability, sterility or even death.No one knows for sure how many terminated their pregnancies through unsafe abortions.Dr. Akinyele Dairo is a senior program and technical advisor for women’s reproductive health at the U.N. Population Fund for the Africa Region.“The issue of teenage pregnancy is a major problem for us in Africa. Africa has a youthful population.About 60 percent of the population in Africa is below the age of 24,which means when we talk about pregnancy it’s going to be an issue within that age group.He said there are several reasons for the high teen pregnancy rate in Africa.The second is that the parents are not well equipped and prepared to be able to train the young people on the issue of sexuality education.The third one is that those who are trained do not even have access to the services that will protect them from teenage pregnancy.And even where services are available in the health facilities the healthcare providers are not friendly enough to encourage to encourage the young people to come to the service delivery points,” he said.
