First Lady receives report on teenage pregnancy from UNICEF Representative

Georgetown, Guyana – (March 19, 2018) First Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger, on Friday, received a courtesy call from the United Nations Children Fund’s (UNICEF) Representative in Guyana, Ms. Sylvie Fouet to discuss the work that organisation is doing in Guyana and to identify potential areas of collaboration. The meeting was held at her State House Office.

Being familiar with the work the First Lady has done in the area of teenage pregnancy, Ms. Fouet presented her with a report of a situation analysis conducted on that social issue in Guyana.  The study was intended to generate more data and action to ensure that the underlying causes of teenage pregnancy are addressed.

“We were discussing how we can address some of the issues. One of them is, of course, out of school [youth], how we can look at reintegrating the teen mothers into the school system for a formal education. Also, looking at information and knowing about relationships and the consequences and working on the health facilities to get them more teen friendly… 20 percent of our adolescents are pregnant before the age of 18, which means one woman out of five. So it’s very important [that] we look at making sure they can become mothers but at a later stage and embrace their youth,” Ms. Fouet said.

The First Lady, who is the patron of Women Across Differences (WAD), has worked with that organisation to execute workshops and training programmes including remedial education, cosmetology, child care and care for the elderly programmes, giving many teenage mothers the opportunity to achieve their goals and be able to meaningfully contribute to their families and communities.