By Dennis Peprah
Sunyani, (Bono), March 13, GNA – Madam Josephine Yalley, the Bono Regional Girl-Child Education Officer, has commended President John Dramani Mahama for the provision to make sanitary pads available to school girls in the 2025 Budget Statement.
She said the government’s intention to provide school girls with sanitary pads reflected Mr Mahama’s sensitivity to alleviating the plight of the majority of school girls, especially those from poor homes and in rural communities.
That is an excellent initiative to tackle menstrual hygiene challenges, and reduce school absenteeism among girls and female students, Madam Yalleh stated.
The Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson announced that the government had allocated Gh¢292.4 million to begin the distribution of free sanitary pads to female students in primary and secondary schools when he presented the 2025 Budget Statement to Parliament.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Madam Yalley, also a gender advocate, and the Director of Help-her Ghana, an NGO working to improve the condition of vulnerable girls, said President Mahama ought to be applauded for that move.
That would greatly increase enrolment, retention, transition and complete rates among girls in schools as well as build and strengthen their confidence in general, she stated.
Madam Yalley said, “President Mahama has really demonstrated that he is a virtuous father who truly cares for the girl-child”, and expressed the optimism that government would do more to tackle challenges inimical to the growth and development of girls in the country.
She said building and strengthening the confidence of school girls would make them assertive enough, and thereby position them well to contribute to addressing challenges confronting them.
“With girls being assertive the nation can tackle child and force marriages as well as other sexual abuses and exploitation of girls proactively”, Madam Yalley stated.
The distribution of free sanitary pads is a fulfilment of President John Dramani Mahama’s 2024 manifesto promise to support girls in basic and senior high schools.
GNA
DEN/CA