Representative of the Chairman, Aid The Clan Child Initiative, Barr. Glory Edet Uwe and the Executive Director of Afro Centre for Peace and Justice (AFRODEP) , Augusta Impact Keneboh in a group photograph with the students of Ibusa Girls Secondary School,Ibusa in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State during a sensitosation programme held at the school.
IBUSSA/Nigeria: The need for every female child to always observe proper hygiene practices during their period of menstruation has been stressed.
A nongovernmental organisation, Aid the Clan Child Initiative (ACCI) made the call at Ibusa Girls Secondary School in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State during a sensitization programme for the students of the school as part of activity to commemorate the 2022 Menstruation Day.
Speaking on the theme : ‘ Making Menstruation a Normal Fact of Life by 2030’ , the Chairman, Aid The Clan Child Initiative, Blessing Benedicta Asakpa stated that the objective of the organisation was to reach out to rural areas with a view to providing their essential needs .
The chairman, who was represented by the Legal Adviser of the organisation, Barr. Glory Edet Uwe also stated that their organisation was aimed at providing scholarship to children irrespective of their sex.
She stated that the organisation had provided educational materials such as notebooks to students in villages where the programme was organised in order to encourage them in their educational pursuit, adding that the gesture was aimed at addressing certain societal problems confronting children especially the girl child.
Earlier in her pep talk, the resource person, Augusta Impact Keneboh who is the Executive Director of Afro Centre for Peace and Justice (AFRODEP) recalled that May 28 every year was observed as Menstrual Hygiene Day in accordance with the United Nations stipulation.
While saying that menstruation was a sign of maturity in every female child, Keneboh noted that it was a normal thing for the girl child to menstruate even as she said that whenever a girl was menstrating she would be confronted with unnecessary discrimination, exclusion and stigma usually seen in the rural areas among the traditional practice cycle.
She advised them to always observe good hygiene whenever they were in their monthly cycle in order to avoid contacting diseases, stressing that they should avoid the use of tissues but always make use of sanitary pads or other available materials that would not pose danger to their reproductive health and practice good hygiene while using them.
She called on the government at a levels to provide a friendly period toilet or safe space for girls to change thereby reducing the risk, vulnerability, occurrence of absenteeism that usually took place when girls were on their period during academic school session.
In their contributions, the Maths teacher, Joe Nunoo and Mrs. Stella Aniemeka said that girl child could be exposed to things that they were not supposed to go into as a result of their vulnerability, noting that every girl child needed to be educated so as to fit into the society.
Highpoint of the Sensitization was the presentation of sanitary pads to the students of the school.
