Buea, February 15, 2021 - The United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) and the Ministry of Public Health in partnership with the Cameroon Baptist Convention Hospital Services (CBCHS) will on Thursday February 18, 2021 organise an Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) Campaign at the Baptist Comprehensive High School in Nkwen, Bamenda at 7 am. The event which falls under the World Bank Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF) aims at:

• Reducing preventable maternal and new-born morbidities and mortalities in the North West Region (NWR) within the covid-19 pandemic and ongoing humanitarian crisis.

• Reducing unmet need for Family planning in underserved populations and communities in the NWR.

The armed conflict/humanitarian crisis in the North West and South Regions (NWSW) has continued to significantly compromise access to basic health care especially sexual reproductive health (SRH) care among adolescents and young people, including those living with disabilities. 1 Hence, making SRH information and services including family planning accessible among this age group can save lives.

Under the first phase of the PEF in 2020, UNFPA created 02 Safe spaces dedicated to the education of young girls and victims of gender-based violence in Bamenda and Buea on their Sexual and reproductive Health Rights, issues around early marriages, unwanted pregnancies and the empowerment of young girls. Thanks to these Safe Spaces, nine internally displaced persons and thirty-six other women from host communities benefited from Baby boxes and were able to deliver their babies with assured dignity and safety.

The ASRH campaigns to be organised in the North West and South Regions are intended to empower about 2000 adolescents with information and services on sexual and reproductive health including family planning so that they can be able to speak out and challenge negative social norms that drive harmful practices, such as gender-based violence, and teenage pregnancy among others, and become change-makers, able to live to their fullest potential.

The event is open to the media and more information can be obtained through the address below;

Tel: +237 694229909

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=unfpa%20cameroon

Twitter: @UNFPACameroon

Website: https://cameroon.unfpa.or