In a move to catch them young, PRO-Health in collaboration with Rotary Club of Bauchi Central on Tuesday, organised a sensitization meeting with girls of Lushi Primary school on menstrual hygiene management.
During the sensitization meeting, Organized to commemorate the 2024 World Menstrual Hygiene Day, the girls aged between 10 and 13 were educated on menstrual management as well as hygiene issues during the monthly period.
The PRO-Health Team Lead in Bauchi state, Dr Asusuchi Osuji said that the project is an OVC focused which provide services in the areas of health and education as well as economic stability at the household level.
According to him, “What we did here today is the health aspect of one of our programmes we are celebrating the World Menstrual Hygiene Day. Of course, this is essentially to ensure that our adolescent girls know how to use the sanitary pads to navigate against toilet infections and other diseases.”
Asusuchi Osuji added that,”Of course also, this tends to limit the total number of performance, total number of attendance at school level. So, we are educating our young girls on how to maintain hygiene using sanitary pads which is commesurate to young girls growing up. Of course, maintaining what is happening in schools and making sure that good health is also maintained.”
On the issue of availability of sanitary pads, he stressed that PRO-Health is working in partnership with relevant CSOs and NGOs who will provide the sanitary pads for the bank where the girls can easily access it every month.
He added that efforts should be made to make sanitary pads available and within the reach of the girls especially the vulnerable and orphaned ones who are found everywhere within the communities.
Also speaking, the President of Rotary Club of Bauchi Central, Rotarian Dauda Pam said that the programme was sponsored by PRO-Health aimed at letting the girls know that menstruation is not a big deal but a natural thing that needs care to be handled.
He stressed that the girls were told about how to ensure that they kept a clean and healthy environment during the monthly period in order to avoid infections and other diseases that are related to the menstrual circle.
The President of Rotary, Bauchi Central assured that the organisation will continue to partner relevant organisations in order to give the society, good and better life.
Esther Patrick, Gender Desk Officer of the Ministry of Women Affairs assured that the Ministry will continue to ensure that the rights of women and girls are protected at all cost including menstrual Hygiene management.
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She also said that the Ministry has a lot of programmes that are geared towards improving the quality of life of women and girls by making sure that everywhere they are found, they are safe.
In her remarks, the Reproductive Health Coordinator of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (BASPHCDA), Binta Ladan said that the purpose was to educate the girls to be aware of menstruation which is a natural endowment.
She added that there is the need to sensitize the girls at the tender age so that they grow up to take care of themselves especially during the menstrual process to enable them keep a healthy living and avoid infections and illnesses associated with a filthy environment
Some of the girls expresses happiness for the meeting which they said had exposes them to the reality of menstrual Hygiene management different from what they were told at home and by their peers.
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE