Women and girls in prisons,detention camps, Internally Displaced (IDP) camps, and those with mental health issues face hard times procuring sanitary pads. Their plight came to the fore when the Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE) gathered over 240 girls at a one-day conference on menstrual hygiene in Lagos.
The event, which was in collaboration with an Australia-based NGO, Girls On A Mission (GOAM), brought together children from 15 schools across Lagos and Ogun states and medical personnel, activists, teachers, journalists and others.
In view of the increasing difficulty that needy women and girls face in handling their monthly periods due to lack of access to sanitary products, child and women’s rights, led by CEE-HOPE, advocates canvassed for healthy lifestyle especially during the monthly menstrual flow, even as they called for the distribution of free sanitary pads by the government for needy women and girls face in handling their monthly periods due to lack of access to sanitary products.
According to the founder and executive director of CEE-HOPE, Betty Abah, the conference was meant to sensitise school girls on how to avoid rape since they are the ones mostly targeted, provide career/motivational talks, even as it draws the government and other stakeholders’ attention to the difficulties women and girls in prison, detention centres, Internally DisplacedPersons (IDP) camps and those fleeing conflicts, those with mental health issues and those facing economic difficulties.
She said: “Before now, the menstrual period was regarded as a taboo topic; but it is time to end the silence and put it in public burners. This is something that affects millions of girls, especially because we are going through a major economic depression and many families’ purchasing powers are down to zero. It’s time to ask questions such as ‘can sanitary pads be made more affordable for our women and girls? Can government help with tax reductions or even make it tax-free so that needy women can afford them? Can they be distributed free of charge as is being done already in other countries?”
Lack of money to purchase sanitary pads, Abah stated, “put many girls in very vulnerable situation which make them to be involved in contractual sex to get money to buy pads and many get infected in the process while many girls miss school when they are in their period and have no money to buy them”.
Reinstating Abah’s concerns, the founder, Atayese Health Network and Bambo Hospital, Dr. Adeolu Olusodo, observed that menstrual hygiene should be given more attention by government as women are at the centre of procreation, and are, therefore, most relevant in the sustainability of humankind. Dr Olusodo who also runs medical services for the ultra-poor in slum communities across Lagos lectured the pupils on the biology of menstrual cycle and how they can understand their cycle and report abnormalities.
The founder, YinkaKenny Girls Care Foundation, Yinka Kenny, spoke on menstrual hygiene management, saying, “Menstruation is a responsibility that nature has bestowed upon us, it cannot be avoided and we need to ensure we do our bit to stay healthy in order to avoid infections.” She also added her voice to the distribution of free sanitary pads for economically-disadvantaged women and girl campaign.
Rape crises management expert and executive director, Media Concern for Women and Children (MEDIACON), Dr Princess Kayode-Olufemi, Executive Director, took the children on steps to take to avoid rape, explaining that once they attain puberty, they can be pregnant and urged them to ensure they avoid unprotected sex and rape.
One of the participating pupils, Miss Priceless Onyegbuna, 15, an SS1 pupil of Ijeshatedo Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, spoke of her experience, stating that: “I learnt a lot from the programme especially about menstrual cycles and how to be extra-neat during the period. I also learnt that women are extremely important in the continuity of creation. Auntie Evelyn D’Poet Osagie of The Nation Newspaper also taught us how to socialise with other girls”.
Other guests who spoke included the in-coming president of the Rotary Club of Gbagada- South, Lagos, Mr David Olusegun, an engineer; an entrepreneur and founder, the Healing Hearts Foundation, Mrs. Sophie Mbanisi;, a veteran journalist/clergy and Board of Trustees member of CEE-HOPE, Venerable Okey Ifionu; a budding actress and gender rights advocate, Meg Otanw; a child’s rights advocate and blogger, Tosin Olorunfemi and Speaker of the Lagos Children’s Parliament, Hon. Raphael Ikuyinminu.
Praising the work of CEE-HOPE, Olusegun promised his club would partner with the NGO in its future programmes on menstrual hygiene and other initiatives aimed at uplifting the young.
Otanwa, who starred in a recent stage play about the abducted Chibok girls, spoke about avoiding distractions and achieving greatness; while Mrs. Mbanisi spoke to them on ‘being deliberate in life and succeeding intentionally’.
Ven. Ifionu admonished the pupils to focus on accomplishing great things in life while having the fear of God. Miss Olorunfemi spoke to them on avoiding sexual bullies or blackmail by predators using online and social media platforms for ‘sex-texting’, a trend which have got many young persons’ lives complicated.
The conference, which was part of activities marking this year’s International Menstrual Hygiene Day, was the second edition by CEE-HOPE, having held the first for 230 girls in Makoko slum in Lagos to mark that of last year. The menstrual hygiene day commemoration kick-started in 2014 to draw attention to the worrisome but often neglected issue worldwide, it was said. Hygiene experts worldwide agree that millions of women battle with managing their menstruation globally due to low purchasing power and it is a major factor for continuing inequality as many girls stay away from school during their periods being unable to cope with lack of access to pads during the period while women and girls get involved in sex exchange to access fund to manage it. Providing sanitary products to women and advocacy for free products has also become the pet project for Meghan Markel, wife of Prince Harry of England, to underscore the seriousness of the issue.
“If government agencies and corporations can give condom to people for free, why can’t they give sanitary products for free? Sex is a choice except in cases of rape but menstruation is never a choice for women and girls in their reproductive years, so this is an issue we can’t afford to keep over-looking,” Abah reiterated.
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