In a bid to boost their level of awareness, some peer educators of school going pupils have benefited from a two-day training programme on the importance of male and female condoms and the causes of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Koinadugu district.

At the programme, which gained the attention of over five hundred inhabitants of Komdemaia chiefdom in the Koinadugu district, Medical Director SO 1 of Sustainable Nutrition and Agriculture Promotion (SNAP), Elisabeth Benga-De', said part of the sensitization process will help inform the people to be abreast of the causes of STDs, teenage pregnancy and methods of spacing their child birth.

She noted that taken a travel around some parts of the district was very difficult but that every effort was done by SNAP, UNFPA/MATCOPS and Marie Stopes to curb the menace and by informing more women on how to prevent themselves from such sicknesses.

Executive Director of MATCOPS, Mamusu K. Williams, said Koinadugu district has long been lacking out of positive sensitization program that will effect a change in the local people, noting that such a message was also good more so for women living in hard-to-reach villages.

One of the participants, Mariatu Lahai, referred to the training as a blessing in disguise to most of them as most towns and villages in the Koinadugu district are yet to benefit from such exercise.