The Safe Menstruation Movement (SAMMO) has partnered with the Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO) to commemorate the World Menstrual Hygiene Day in the Upper East Region.
Menstrual Hygiene Day is an annual global awareness day celebrated on May 28th to help break the stigma and address the challenges surrounding menstrual hygiene management.
The main reasons why Menstrual Hygiene Day is celebrated include raising awareness about the importance of good menstrual hygiene management for women and girls, especially in developing countries where access to sanitary products and facilities is limited, breaking the taboos and stigma surrounding menstruation, which often leads to discrimination and exclusion of women and girls during their periods, and advocating for the integration of menstrual hygiene management into global, national, and local policies, programs, and resources.
The celebration will be held at the St John’s Park in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital.
When the Advocacy Lead for SAMMO, Comfort Adongo, spoke with A1 Radio’s Mark Smith on the Day Break Upper East Show today, she explained that the organization has always put issues around menstrual hygiene in the Upper East Region at the forefront.
“We have always commemorated the World Menstrual Hygiene Day. We have always distributed sanitary pads to girls in schools and also educated them on hygiene issues. That is what SAMMO has taken upon itself.”
Ms. Adongo said through the engagement in schools, the young people are reminded of the need to be very particular about hygiene, particularly when they are menstruating. Additionally, the work SAMMO does, Ms. Adongo said, is to end period poverty.
“Most girls, because of menstruation, they do what they are not supposed to do in order to get money to buy pads. Can you imagine, in a household, if they do not spend more than GHC 10 to cook for the whole house, how would they give GHC 10 to the girl to go and buy sanitary pads?”
The Advocacy Lead for SAMMO also challenged parents to show more interest in the menstrual cycles of their children and provide more information to them to help dispel the wrong information that would be shared by their peers.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
