Gender advocate urges parents to educate girls about menstrual circle
Mrs Raquel Daniel, a gender advocate and founder of Beyond the Classroom Foundation, an NGO, has advised parents to educate young girls about menstrual circle.
Daniel made the call at the Inauguration of a book titled “Lily’s Evolution”, a girl’s guide to navigating periods (menstruation) with confidence written by Mrs Olamibo Balogun.
The inauguration of the book/lecture on menstrual circle to the young girls between ages seven and 13 was to commemorate the World Menstrual Hygiene Day, celebrated annually on May 28.
She equally called on parents to educate their girl-child on puberty, saying this would assist them a lot and guide them in their lives while they growing up.
“My advice now is for the parents, most of the things we see right now that are problem in the society start from home, if you have children you have the responsibility to take care of them, teach them and not just to leave the responsibility to school alone.
“It is the parents responsibility to teach them what to do while they are growing, any girl that doesn’t have access to parents or guidiance, I will advise them to read books like puberty evolution, menstruation.
“They should also ask questions from big aunties on how they feel about their bodies. Parents should do what they can; we are now in digital age; they can always google about this stages to learn a lot,” she stressed.
She equally advised parents to enlighten their girl-child on sex education, saying sex education and awareness were important in the lives of a girl-child.
According to her, awareness should be given to a child when he or she is young, while education should be given to such child when they had grown.
She said that parents must educate the children mostly girls about the private areas in their bodies, adding that all these were all about educating the girl- child what happened when they had sex before the usual time.
Daniel said that giving the children all the awareness made them to understand the repercussion that followed when they had sex before the usual time.
She said that doing all these, it would be difficult for the children, especially the young girls, to make mistake early in their lives.
Balogun, the book author who is also a Creative Director, Great Mind Advocacy Readers, disclosed that she had earlier written a book on sexual abuse.
According to her, teaching the girls to keep themselves safe and to run away from what will make them to be abused, as well as the environment they should stay, will make them gather confidence.
She said that the next thing was for the girl child to grow up to the next stage where her menstrual flow would start flowing, saying that the stage had actually motivated her to write Lily’s evolution.
“Lily’s evolution”, the book is about a young girl that started her period and she was abused and laughed at and she never wanted to go back to that class.
“This book is teaching girls not to stay away from school during their period (menstruation) and saying no to menstrual shame and saying no to stigmatisation from boys.
“The moment a girl-child starts her menstruation, especially when it comes the first time and she is unaware she was stained, she will not want to go back to that class.
“This book is teaching them how to grow their confidence, parents should not take it lightly in teaching their children all they need to know about menstruation; they should start early to educate their child about this and sexual abuse.
NAN/Oyenike Oyeniyi
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