By Yunus S Saliu
The research findings dissemination exercise on Comprehensive health education (CHE) under the project Strengthening Access to Quality Comprehensive Health Education in The Gambia was Friday, 1st May wrapped up.
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).
On the just concluded research findings dissemination exercise, forty-three schools were visited by the research team led by Ms Phebian Ina Grant-Sagnia, principal investigator of the project for Strengthening Access to Quality Comprehensive Health Education for in-and-out of School Adolescents in Region I, The Gambia.
In her presentation at various visited upper basic and senior secondary schools, Ms Phebian Ina Grant-Sagnia explained to students what is meant by CHE, lectured them about adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) issues and also advised them.
Ms Grant-Sagnia informed students Comprehensive Health Education encompasses all aspects of a young person’s life which included but not limited to skills, attitudes, and practices of children and youth that are conducive to their good health and that promote wellness, health maintenance and disease prevention.
She explained to them that adolescents have various needs with respect to sexual development and have a need to receive help in understanding their own changes of body and behavior and how to cope with these not only at the time but also how to integrate them into a mature personality in the future.
The Principal Investigator made them to understand that CHE among adolescents and youth would provide students with life skills with which they can handle crisis situations.
And if they are well informed, she said they will become aware of their body and its functioning and be able to protect themselves from sexual abuse.
Among other discussed topics under the ASRH included menstruation and other natural things in the body, early sexual debut, teenage and unwanted pregnancy, prevention of pregnancy, abstinence, STIs, misinformation about sex and inadequate or lacks of information about sexual and reproductive health between children and parents.
The forty-three schools visited during the just concluded dissemination of research findings exercise included St Joseph’s, Nusrat, Gambia SSS, Aji Sukai Ndateh Memorial, Charles Fowlis, Ndow’s UBS/SSS, Muslim SSS, SOS Herman Gemeiner, Kotu SSS, St Augustine, Sheikh Mass Kah, Garba Jahumpa UBS, ABC New Jeshwang UBS/SSS, Latrikunda UBS, Greater Banjul, St Therese’s, New Life, Carter, Bakoteh, Deeper Life UBS/SSS, Charles Jaw Memorial, St Chales Lwanga, Kanifing East UBS/SSS, Abuko UBS, Tallinding UBS, Glory Baptist, Apple Tree, Imam Malick UBS/SSS, Methodist Academy, Daddy Jobe Comprehensive, Kotu Munazamat, New Covenant and Wordsly UBS.
