The Safe Menstruation Movement (SAMMO), a non-governmental and non-profit organization based in the Upper East Region, has questioned the government on the growing cost of sanitary products in Ghana.
Safe Menstruation Movement (SAMMO), whose members comprise young voluntary men and women, whose aim is to support young girls with sanitary products to ensure a safe and hygienic menstruation period and to also provide education to school-going girls on menstrual hygiene, among other things,
Ghana joins the world to commemorate International Menstruation Hygiene Day on May 28 every year, which is a global advocacy platform used to promote good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) practices and raise awareness of the challenges women and girls face during menstruation.
In a press release copied to this website, the Safe Menstruation Movement (SAMMO) described it as unfortunate considering how women and girls suffer to afford sanitary pads during menstruation period following the high cost of the product in the country.
According to SAMMO, sanitary products that help women ensure a safe and hygienic menstruation period should not be so costly that the government even places taxation on them.
“SAMMO wants to find out from the government of the Republic of Ghana if it is a crime to be born a woman or if women intentionally create a menstruation period for themselves. We at SAMMO believe menstruation is a natural phenomenon, and it is not for nothing that God made women experience it every month in their lives.”
“Why would the government place a 20-person luxury tax on sanitary products, making our vulnerable girls find it difficult to buy? These are the questions we at SAMMO on this day join women and all well meaning Ghanaians across the nation to seek answers from our authorities, whom we believe have all the power to scrap this unacceptable tax in order for women to also have hygienic menstruation periods without stress”
This year’s International Menstrual Hygiene Day is been celebrated on the theme “making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030”
SAMMO is passionately calling on the government to, as a matter of urgency, implement three things that they believe will help women and girls manage their periods safely. They are: scrap the 20% Luxury Tax on sanitary products and create an enabling environment for companies to manufacture sanitary pads locally, the government, through Ghana Education Service (GES), should also provide gender-friendly facilities and changing rooms in our schools for girls to use during their menstruation period. We also wish to call on all parents to show much interest in their adolescent girl’s menstrual health and support them with menstrual hygiene education and sanitary pads.
“By doing so, women and girls can feel empowered to manage their periods safely, with confidence, and without embarrassment. We should live in a world where no woman or girl is limited to something as natural as menstruation”
SAMMO uses the occasion to express its gratitude to its partners and sponsors, which include Blessings Basket Ghana and The Britney Tachie Foundation, and the general public for believing in and supporting their course all the time.
Source:A1Radioonline.Com|101.1MHZ|David Azure|Bolgatanga|
