{
  "id": 8290196,
  "title": "Parents urged to raise children with love, open communication to curb teenage pregnancy",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/18/parents-urged-to-raise-children-with-love-open-communication-to-curb",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-09-18T18:46:19.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MyJoyOnline Ghana",
    "slug": "myjoyonline-ghana",
    "url": "https://www.myjoyonline.com/parents-urged-to-raise-children-with-love-open-communication-to-curb-teenage-pregnancy/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Recent data from the Adaklu Health Directorate reveals a concerning rise in teenage pregnancies, with 109 pregnancies recorded in 2024 and 120 in 2025. The increase has sparked worries about the welfare of adolescent girls and boys in the district, despite ongoing efforts to enhance reproductive health education and child protection. Research conducted in 2021 has highlighted poor communication between adolescents and their parents or guardians as a key contributor to teenage pregnancy, with 87.5% of surveyed teens never discussing sexual issues with their fathers and only 12.5% doing so with their mothers. Friends of Adaklu, in collaboration with SOS Children’s Villages Ghana, aims to address this issue through community-based programs. Roberta Donkor, the Child Protection Officer, notes poverty as a significant hurdle for caregivers, who often lack the resources to meet their children's basic needs and keep them in school. The project has established community-based child protection committees and provided financial grants to help improve parental care. Advocacy events bring the community together to discuss the challenges children face and encourage positive parenting practices, such as open communication and loving discipline. While some parents are receptive to these changes, others resist, illustrating the complexity of addressing deep-rooted cultural attitudes. Despite these hurdles, the project has already yielded positive results, with some parents altering their approach to raising children and reducing physical punishment.",
  "summary": "The rising teenage pregnancy figures in Adaklu have been linked to gaps in parent-child communication, parental neglect and poverty, with child protection advocates calling for stronger family support and open discussions with adolescents on sensitive issues.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}