Seventeen percent of young girls in Cross River state get impregnated before they reached marriageable age, says Aids Health Care Foundation. Country programme director for the Foundation in Nigeria, Dr. Eche Ijezie, made the remark while speaking at the 2018 international Day of the Girls Child Celebration in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
Ijezie who spoke on the theme; Creating safe spaces for Girls stated that available statistics from the NDHS revealed 17% of teenage girls often get impregnated before they hit marriageable age.
“He said if you look at NDHS data for 2013, Cross River State stands around 17% out of teenage pregnancy for girls age I think 10-18.
If you look at that data its very high for Cross River and if you look at it nationwide I think its 12% if am not mistaken.
“Which means Cross River is already very high among states that have very high teenage pregnancy in Nigeria. The country programme director said. Ijezie maintained that apart from the state being plagued with teenage pregnancy the state is also said to be affected with issues that are related to HIV/AID stressing that it was on that basis that the organization decided to carry out awareness campaign so as to reducethe high incidence of teenage pregnancy which was assuming an alarming rate in the state.
The organization distributed menstrual pads worth millions on naira to over 400 school girls who are drawn from several schools across the state saying it was one the ways of campaigning against teenage pregnancies, and providing for the girls to manage themselves properly during menstruation.
He said, “Awareness campaigns of this nature, will help young girls understand their values, know how to manage their bodies, build their capacities, empower them in a mannerthat they will be able able to negotiate what they want.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar