BO Town was the venue for the launching of the family planning and the prevention of teenage pregnancy and early marriage in Sierra Leone by Her Excellency Mrs Sia Nyama Koroma First Lady Republic of Sierra Leone. It can be recalled that two years ago the First Lady initiated a forum at the Bank complex in Freetown which gathered Traditional and Religious Leaders to champion the way forward for the drastic reduction of the high figure of deaths of pregnant women while given life.

The First Lady holds the view that Traditional and Religious Leaders play critical roles in their communities and in the social, health and cultural development of individuals, families and the country. Traditional and Religious Leaders have networks that reach more audiences in their communities. Statistics reveal that ninety percent of people in Sierra Leone are attached to some form of religion be Christian or Muslim.

In BO Town the objectives of the three day workshop opened by Her Excellency Mrs Sia Nyama Koroma was outlined which included to use the knowledge gained from the first consultative forum in 2008, shared experiences, best practices and lessons learned tostrengthen TRL networks in promoting family planning issues and the reduction of Teenage Pregnancy and Early Marriage.

The overall goal is to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. However the specific objectives indicated by the First Lady were to increase demand and utilization for FP services among adolescents, youth women and men within reproductive age by twenty five percent by 2015. In addition she went on was to reduce the level of unmet need for FP by twenty five percent within five years and increase the awareness on appropriate IEC BBC on RH and FP services. The First Lady reiterated that the workshop would discuss the expand family planning services and improve quality to meet current and future demands.