By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Arigu (NE/R), March 17, GNA – Meta Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation has supported some basic level schoolgirls in the West Mamprusi Municipality, in the North East Region with sanitary pads.
At least 95 schoolgirls from the Arigu Junior High School and Naminyela Junior High School received the sanitary products, supported by MC De Konz Enterprise in Bolgatanga.
The gesture, which formed part of a voluntary service project dubbed “Community Health Promotion (CHeP) project,” was part of the efforts to promote good menstrual hygiene management among adolescents.
The pilot project being implemented in collaboration with STAR Ghana in five communities in the West Mamprusi Municipality namely Arigu, Bisigu, Gbeo, Naminyela and Karimenga, was to use community-based volunteers’ model to improve child nutrition.
The project aimed to further reduce the spread of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea among others and positively influence the health-seeking behaviour of about 1,000 women and girls of reproductive age.
Ms Doris Awelimah Anyagre, the Programme Associate and Lead for the CHeP project, noted that apart from the donation, the students were sensitised on the production of reusable sanitary pads as well menstrual hygiene and reproductive health practices.
She said the move was part of strategies to support girls to stay in school, live dignified lives, end stigmatisation and ensure gender equality.
As part of the CHeP project, community members including teachers and health workers were trained as volunteers to carry out community sensitisation and outreaches to empower residents on the need to ensure good sanitation practices and nutrition for children.
She said the volunteers had been leading the process of change in the communities, encouraging exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months after childbirth and complementary feeding to enhance the growth and development of children.
Apart from that, she said the project through the support of the volunteers was encouraging the establishment and use of household toilets facilities (latrines), adding that the intervention had helped to end open defecation among some households.
“The project aimed to promote general positive behavioural change in accessing health care among the communities.
“Due to the project, the volunteers are now leading clean up campaigns in the communities and their surroundings on weekly basis especially their water bodies because some of the communities rely on the White Volta for water. We are also encouraging the communities to plant trees,” he said.
The volunteers expressed gratitude to Meta Foundation and its partners for the project, adding that the intervention was helping to change behaviours in the communities and impacting access to health care.
Ms Prisicilla Kwada, one of the beneficiary girls from the Naminyela Junior High School (JHS), thanked Meta Foundation and its sponsors for the sanitary pads and said it would go a long way to help her ensure good menstrual hygiene.
Ms Patricia Akurugu, another beneficiary from the Arigu JHS, said due to poverty she was unable to get sanitary pads to use during her menstruation and said the gesture would help to lift that burden.
GNA
FAA/CAA