The Savannah Regional Health Directorate has appealed to the people of the region to support the Girls Iron Folic Tablets Supplementation (GIFTS) program to help in ending anaemia among adolescent girls.

 

Speaking at a media/stakeholder engagement on GIFTS program in Damongo, the Savannah Regional Nutrition Officer, Mr. Brian Kamara disclosed that anaemia remains a major problem of public health in Ghana with a prevalence rate of 26 percent among young adults aged between 15-19 years in 2017.

 

Mr. Kamara said the GIFTS program was being implemented as an inter-sectorial intervention between the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) with their partners to promote health and nutrition education and enhance behavior change to control and prevent anemia among the girl child in the country.

 

He bemoaned the misconceptions around the GIFTs program with some misconceiving the Iron Folic Supplement(IFS) as family planning pills.

 

He added that "we need the strong partnership and support of the media to correct some of these misconceptions".

 

Modernghana