The Bongo Queen Mothers Association has called on government agencies, traditional authorities, religious leaders, and relevant institutions to collaborate strongly to combat the rising rates of teenage pregnancy and early marriage in the district.

At the 5^th Anniversary Celebration of the association, the queen mothers said they were worried about the increasing rate at which young girls were getting pregnant and dropping out of school to get married, despite several interventions over the years to curb this problem.

Research in previous years revealed that the Bongo district was one of the top districts with the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy in Ghana.

This prompted several organisations to collaborate with the Ghana Education Service to initiate girl-child-related campaigns in the area, in a bid to curb the problem.

The Bongo Queen Mothers Association, however, believes the problem of teenage pregnancy and early marriage is shooting up again.  

At an event to mark the 5^th anniversary of forming their association, the queen mothers called for stronger collaboration between stakeholders to eliminate the problem permanently.

Queen Mother of Bongo-Feo, Pognaba Agamboka Noyansonga-Kaisikoma who is the secretary of the association said; “Bongo was first on the list as the highest recording teenage pregnancy and early marriage in the whole country so upon hearing this news it wasn’t palatable for us.

"That was before the year 2020 so when we started with our sensitisation we dropped from the first to the 11^th position out of the 15 districts in the region but due to our inability to continue, the early marriage and teenage pregnancy is shooting up again”.

“We, therefore, call on chiefs, the Regional Minister, Girl Child Officer(s), gender desks, parish priests, chief Imams, institutions, politicians, and everyone to support us fight this battle; for our children are our future”, she added.

The Bongo Queen Mothers Association was formed to unite these women's traditional leaders in the Bongo district to discuss the problems of their communities and find lasting solutions together.

According to the Bongo-Feo Queen Mother, the association has achieved a lot in the five years of its existence.

She said they have supported children going to senior high school or tertiary and did not financial capability to do so.

“We have supported a boy to go to police training who has completed and is now working. We also supported a girl in Nursing training who has completed and awaiting her posting”, she revealed.

Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, Naba Baba Salifu Lemyarum commended the queen mothers for their dedication and assured them of his support in their efforts to eradicate teenage pregnancy and early childhood marriages.