<<Print>>

Parents and guardians have been urged to open up and discuss sex related issues with their children in their puberty to enable them exit the transitional period without misconceptions. Mrs. Emily Bart-Plange, a retired insurance officer who gave the advice described puberty as a very challenging period in the human cycle which required a lot of support especially with sex education and therefore urged parents not to feel shy of such responsibility. She gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at a sensitization programme organized by Good Life Ghana, a Non Governmental Organization, for pupils at Brafoyaw A.M.E Zion Basic School in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese District, on Wednesday. The programme dubbed �Managing transition from puberty to adolescent� was aimed at educating school children on the numerous issues that come with the transition in order to help them build better personalities. Mrs. Bart-Plange indicated that the inability of parents to create the opportunity for their children to trust them with sex related issues bothering them could compel them to seek answers from among others, their equally na�ve friends and the internet. She urged parents to give sex education to their children at an early stage for them to be well informed and desist from acts that will jeopardize their future. During the programme, she stated that though the attraction between male and female was normal and very strong during puberty, it did not mean they were ready for sexual intercourse and its associated issues and therefore they should guard against premarital sex. Mrs. Bart-Plange advised them to �respect their reproductive organs� by allowing them to mature well so they could have a complication-free reproductive life in the future since early sex came with numerous challenges, which may not surface immediately. �Parenthood is a very serious responsibility which no child should attempt� study hard and stay away from sex�, she cautioned and advised the girls to refrain from wearing skimpy clothes during vacation classes and social events. �Womanhood is not limited to motherhood and being a wife ...do not be in a rush... make good use of your youthful stage and become an important person in the future,� she advised. Mr. Samuel Kojo Appah, Executive Director of Good Life Ghana, expressed worry over the telecast of soap operas and the negative impact it had on the children and urged parents to regulate the programmes their children watched. He urged the children to eschew sexual and other immoral activities which had the tendency to destroy their dreams of becoming very important persons in the society. He stated that Good Life Ghana would continue to organize such programmes as often as it could to help erase the numerous misconceptions about puberty and urged parents, the church, traditional leaders and other stakeholders to play their parts well.