The Glimmer of Hope Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region, has educated about 550 adolescent girls on how to maintain good personal hygiene during and after menstruation. Menstrual health education has become a necessity to eradicate stigmatisation, and menstrual poverty and create the awareness that menstruation is a normal fact of life. Madam Vasty Nunana Egbetorhia, the Co-founder of Glimmer of Hope, at a ceremony to commemorate the Menstrual Hygiene Day in the District, said some adolescent girls were financially constrained to take good care of themselves when menstruating. She advocated the scrapping of the tax on sanitary pads to enable all adolescent girls to afford to ensure good hygienic practices during menstruation. ‘Menstruation has never been a luxury, it’s a five day of discomfort, which when given the opportunity no girl will opt for,’ she said. Madam Egbetorhia said the adolescent girl suffered most due to the price hikes in sanitary materials adding: ‘There are girls that buy more than two menstrual pads every month.’ She called on the Ghana Education Service to incorporate menstrual hygiene education in its curricula to make adolescent girls comfortable with the natural cycle. ‘It’s not compulsory to stand up when answering questions in my class since a girl might stain and would just be waiting for you to leave the class to go and change,’ she said. The Glimmer of Hope Foundation, as part of the celebration, has donated menstrual hygiene materials to adolescent girls, including sanitary pads. This is to put smiles on the girls’ faces and give them the confidence to protect themselves during their menstrual period. The adolescent girls lauded the kind gesture of the Glimmer of Hope Foundation and asked that the Foundation extended the support to other girls in deprived communities. This year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day is on the theme: ‘Making Menstruation a Normal Fact of Life by 2030.
Source: Ghana News Agency