By Edward Dankwah
Accra, March 23, GNA – SparkLife International, a non-profit community-based organisation in Ghana and the United States, has educated and supported more than 200 female adolescent students with sanitary pads and menstrual hygiene kits.
The support formed part of hygiene project with the aim to help the female students stay in school and to be able to move around freely.
A statement issued in Accra by Mr Destiny Selormey, the Chief Executive Officer of SparkLife International, said the students were taught the importance of personal hygiene during this period.
These products were distributed to students of Dambai RC Basic School and Cibi community all in the Oti Region.
It said the support was also to commemorate the celebration of international Women’s Day, which fell on March 8.
The statement said the theme selected by the Organisation for the celebration was “Women are the beauty of the World.”
It said menstruation, in both urban and rural communities in developing countries, was perceived as shameful and most adolescent females, especially in the rural communities, felt very stigmatised and embarrassed during their menstruation period.
The statement said a simple survey among adolescent females indicated that most of them used toilet rolls and pieces of clothes to protect themselves during their menstruation periods, a practice which was very unhygienic.
It said couple with other complications, the adolescent females have low self-esteem among their colleagues during this period, which prevents them from going to school and marketplaces.
“Poor personal menstrual health contributes to reproductive health complications, dysmenorrhea, dysfunctional uterine bleeding and amenorrhea, which affects adolescent female children growth,” it added.
The statement said young adolescent females in developing countries, especially in rural communities, needed education on how to manage themselves during their menstruation period.
UNESCO June 27, 2016, estimated that one in 10 girls in sub-Saharan African countries miss school during their menstrual cycle.
It said many girls drop out of school altogether once they begin menstruating, and wondered whether the young women must miss 20 per cent of school days each year due to a lack of facilities, or a lack of information or a lack of sanitary products.
The statement said poor adolescent female menstruation was a social problem and must be handled collectively to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) one (No poverty), SDG three (Good health and well-being) SDGs four (Quality education), SDGs five (Gender equality) and SDGs six (Clean water and sanitation).
It called for the cost of sanitary pads to be subsidised, especially for female students.
The statement urged stakeholders to have critical interest in the hygiene and health of female children because, they were vulnerable though they were the beauty of the world.
The SparkLife International said it was committed to support women and children to become leaders of change in society and to support more adolescent females next year during the International Womens Day Celebration.
It commended its donors for their support, especially partners from the United States.
GNA