A nonprofit organisation known as Rare Elite Foundation has distributed more than four hundred sanitary pads to girls across community schools in Cross River State, Southern Nigeria.
The foundation through its ‘Pad-a-girl’ project distributed the sanitary towels to girls in six secondary schools across four Bekwara local government area communities in Cross River.
Menstrual health and hygiene
Before handing out the items, the proprietor of the foundation, Mrs. Ukeh Omang said that the focus of the initiative was to sensitixe young girls, especially those in the rural areas, on menstrual health and hygiene.
According to Omang, the sensitisation was also to enable the girls understand the health benefits of utilizing sanitary pads to prevent infections and enhance enrollment in schools.
She said, “this project is aimed at ending period poverty and promoting shared prosperity of health rights toward improved girl-child education at the grass-root levels.”
The founder explained that the girls were taught the best practices on disposal of used pads to avoid causing environmental hazards, noting “we decided to educate young girls on their hygiene. We realize that menstruation stops some of them from going to school, which should not be so.
“We need to enable our young girls understand that menstruation is just a free flow of blood. For girls to be able to become what they want to become in life, they must go to school. So, we have given them sanitary pads that can help prevent complications arising from improper menstrual hygiene,“ Omang said.
Affordability factor
Explaining that the financial constraints was another factor for distribution, Omang stated, “in rural areas, girls do not have basic access to sanitary products. It is safe to say that the majority of the girls in rural areas in the country cannot afford safe and hygienic sanitary pads for proper menstrual hygiene management.
“These sanitary pads are not only expensive particularly with the current economic situation in the country, but cannot be reused. But, it will also be of great help if the government gave free sanitary pads to teenage girls in secondary schools as a matter of policy,” she sued.
She further appealed to well-meaning Nigerians and International donor agencies to support the foundation’s efforts to educate more girls on menstrual hygiene nationwide including the training of women to be financially independent.
One of the beneficiary students, Mary Ushie expressed appreciation to the organization for the gesture, saying “in my community, many of the girls do not use sanitary pads because it is expensive, so they use clothes. But with this, we will be able to use pads for a little while. Also, the foundation has promised to keep helping us with pads, so we will not go back to using clothes.”
The sanitary pads were also distributed to female secondary students from three other communities in Bekwarra local government area of Cross River northern district.
Lateefah Ibrahim
