The joy of the internally displaced school girls at Junior Government Secondary School, Abuja knew no bounds as Strategy and Innovation for Development Initiative (SI4DEV) launched it’s micro project called Sanitary Pads Bank.
The project is geared towards addressing the menstrual health challenges faced by the adolescent school girls who suffer displacement following the activity of insurgency groups in the north east region of Nigeria, in addition to other crisis and poverty.
Due to this menace, the girls that were forced to live in IDPs camps suffer from lack of proper care, support and even advice during their menstrual flow hereby making them vulnerable and susceptible to vaginal infections as well as unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
The micro project, according to the organisers, is geared towards the provision of sanitary pads to the identified IDP school girls on a monthly basis. The initiative could be scaled up and extended to other neighboring rural community schools. The project is the first of its kind to be launched for IDP school girls in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
Speaking at the launch, the project lead, David Arome, described the micro project as laudable and enjoined the school girls to make utmost use of the sanitary pads bank.
He further enjoined the girls to take menstrual health hygiene serious as adolescent stage is a transition phase into adulthood, as such, good personal hygiene is very critical at this stage of their lives.
Pharmacist Stephen, one of the facilitators at the launch of the project spoke on menstrual hygiene. He stressed the need for the girls to imbibe the culture of good personal cleanliness and make good use of the sanitary pads with frequent change of the pads after 4 to 6 hours.
Mrs Nnena Owowo, the facilitator of the IDP school girls in the host school applauded the sponsoring organization for considering the school to launch the micro project.
She advised the girls to make good use of the sanitary pads, maintain their virginity, and stay away form things that could get them distracted from their studies.
According to the organisers, the availability of a bank of sanitary products will no doubt improve school attendance and allow the girls to remain in school for longer.
“Many girls even drop out of school when they start menstruating due to lack of sanitary products,” organisers told healthnews.ng