Sensitisation on Menstrual Health and Hygiene: SLF Launched.
Sensitisation on Menstrual Health and Hygiene: Across the world, 1.8 billion people menstruate each month. Millions of these girls, women, transgender men, and non-binary people are unable to control their menstrual cycle in a respectable manner that promotes good health.
Menstruation’s onset ushers in a new stage in teenagers’ lives as well as new vulnerabilities. When having their period, many adolescent girls experience stigma, bullying, and social isolation. Due to prejudice based on gender identity, non-binary people and transgender males are unable to access the resources and facilities they require.
Menstrual health and hygiene requirements may not be satisfied due to gender inequity, discriminatory social norms, cultural taboos, poverty, and a lack of basic amenities like restrooms and sanitary products.
This is a major public health concern that caught the attention many foundations including the Sylvia Lawson Foundation which was launched to educate adolescent girls on menstrual health and hygiene.
The Sylvia Lawson Foundation (TSLF) aims to provide more than 25,000 sanitary pads to more than 6,009 kids in eight schools located in the Volta and Upper East regions.
Adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 20 who attend senior high schools with lower grade levels will receive sanitary pads.
Members of the foundation, officials from corporate institutions, and partners all attended the launch last Saturday.
Sylvia Adwoa Lawson, the foundation’s founder, claimed that throughout the years, many girls in elementary and senior high schools all around the nation have struggled to afford hygienic sanitary towels for adequate menstruation care.
She claimed that as a result, some young women had turned to using a variety of unusual methods in order to sustain themselves when they were menstruating.
“Teenagers’ adherence to hygienic menstruation habits shouldn’t be taken lightly.
It may be difficult for girls to seek healthcare to treat themselves if they develop reproductive infections from using improper absorbent materials during their menstrual flow “According to her
Adding that “I know what the foundation stands for,” Mrs. Lawson described the situation as a tragic one that required the attention of official agencies, non-governmental organisations, and private groups.
She said, “It is up to you and me to join forces and provide the foundation with the funding it needs to reach out to our vulnerable girls, restore their dignity, and brighten their future.
The essential human rights of girls can be violated by a natural occurrence like menstruation, according to Anna Adukwei Addo, the municipal chief executive for Tema West.
She said that the absence of sanitary pads caused girls to have low self-esteem, lack confidence, and be subjected to humiliation by people of the opposite sex.
Ms Addo commended the CEO for taking the initiative and urged everyone to assist her support, young females.
Sarah Gershong, the assistant headteacher in charge of administration at the Tema Secondary School, also urged the founder to help females in urban regions as well as rural ones.
You’ll be shocked to learn that period poverty does not only exist in impoverished places; it also exists in cities, and certain communities—including ones right here in Accra—need these hygienic items.
