Mother’s Day: Dr Prempeh urges Ghanaians to protect girls against cancers

Dr Freda Prempeh, the Founder of the Ultimate Women Foundation (UWF), has urged Ghanaians to help protect girls against cancers, and related diseases, as the world celebrates this year’s International Mother’s Day.
UWF seeks to encourage and motivate indigenous and vulnerable women and girls to know their worth and to empower and well-position them to contribute to the development of their communities and the larger society.
As future mothers of the nation, Dr Prempeh said girls could grow to become healthier and responsible women, if they were protected against life-threatening diseases like cervical cancer.
She said the HPV vaccine against cancers had proven efficacious and medically healthy for girls, saying now that the nation had the vaccines, there was the need for families to encourage their girls to take the shots and protect themselves.
“It’s medically proven that the HPV vaccine can prevent cancers caused by a Human Papillomavirus infection including cervical cancer,” she stated.
Dr Prempeh, also the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Tano North Constituency, indicated that as the nation celebrate “Mothers’ Day,” attention ought to be on tackling challenges impeding the holistic growth and development of girls to enable them to grow to become responsible adults in society.
She expressed  regret that despite intensified public education and awareness creation, some socio-cultural, traditional and other religious beliefs still persisted, and were inimical to the growth of women and girls.
Those beliefs, Dr Prempeh added, had contributed to early/forced marriage, widow rites as well as other worst forms of abuses against women and girls in parts of the country.
The former MP said girls ought to be supported enough to achieve higher education and to pursue their life careers to the optimum, urging more economic support for indigenous women to build on their lives too.
Dr Prempeh said mothers ought to be supported and celebrated due to their essential role in the family in putting food on the table, and also facilitating the proper upbringing of children.
GNA