By Dennis Peprah, GNA
Sunyani, (Bono), May 28, GNA-Adolescent girls have been urged to prefer panties or underwear made with cotton to synthetic ones during menstruation.
Mrs Felicia Konadu, the Health Promotion Manager at the Sunyani Municipal Directorate of Health who gave the advice, said synthetic-made panties and underwear exposed girls to infections during their menses.
She also urged them to always buy panties and underwear which had a variety of colours instead of purely black-made colours.
Mrs Konadu gave the advice when she took some basic schoolgirls through menstrual hygiene education to mark the 2026 Menstrual Hygiene Day (MHD) in Sunyani.
The MHD is celebrated globally on May 28 every year and to create a wave of attention for menstruation, enjoining governments and stakeholders to collectively act, adopt policies and improve menstrual health and hygiene services.
The WENSAH Foundation International, a charity organisation organised the exercise for the Sunyani St Patrick and Nyamaa basic school girls.
Mrs Konadu noted that good menstrual hygiene protected girls from infections and discharges, describing menstruation as a natural phenomenon, and urged girls to always check the type of panties and underwear they put on during those sensitive periods.
She said it was normal for some girls to experience lower abdominal pains and urged those who go through such pains to ensure that they were always physically active to manage the pains.
Mrs Konadu also urged the girls to endeavour to ‘change’ themselves frequently during their menses and also washed and exposed their panties and underwear to direct sunlight, urging them to also iron their panties before they wear them.
She reminded that normally their blood flow could last between three and seven days of menstruation.
Mrs Fati Kine Lam, the Bono Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation also advised the girls to endeavour to bathe frequently and use lime to clean their sensitive body parts whenever they menstruate.
She said doing so would prevent them from body odour, and advised the girls not to be socially excluded during their menses.
Mrs Lam called for collective efforts to tackle certain misconceptions and myths associated with menstruation as well as promoting good menstrual hygiene to protect the reproductive system of girls.
Mr Isaac Osei Amponsah, the Chief Executive Officer of the WENSAH Foundation International expressed appreciation to the Ignatius Eye clinic, Grace Land roofing system and Indomie Ghana for supporting the activities of the foundation.
He said besides the donation, the foundation and its partners were engaging the school authorities to identify and provide monthly sanitary pads to the less privileged girls.
The foundation and its partners later presented quantities of sanitary pads and some meals to the school girls with each of the 150 girls receiving pieces of sanitary pads to manage their menses.
GNA
Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Dennis Peprah
[email protected]