NGO appeals for tax reduction on sanitary pads

The Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana (YHFG), a Non-Governmental Organisation, has appealed to the Government to reduce the tax on sanitary pads to make them affordable.

“It will also be welcome news if the government could issue free supplies of it for the girls”.

Ms Augustina Dechegme Achigibah, the Evidence to Action: Sexual and Reproductive Health Education Advocacy Project Officer of YHFG, said most parents in rural communities in the Upper East Region were unable to afford the cost of sanitary pads to assist their girls to undergo safe menstrual periods.

Ms Achigibah was speaking with the Ghana News Agency after a one-day media engagement on Reproductive Health Education sponsored by the Riksförbundet för Sexuell Upplysning (RFSU).

She said, “access to sanitary pads is a very big deal in Ghana because currently there is a tax on it. Averagely a packet of sanitary pads goes for GHC5.00 which is a challenge for some of our girls in the communities.

Some end up using rags or tissue papers which are not good for their reproductive organs. I think it is a very big issue we have to look at.”

She said, “Government would have to help us if possible scrap the tax or make sanitary pads free for the girls in schools as other countries are doing.”

Ms Khadija Hamidu, an Officer working on the Project, said she urged the media to support the organisation’s advocacy on reproductive health education for young people.

She said the media engagement would allow the selected Journalists to understand the project and its activities, and to enable them adequately educate members of the public on reproductive health.

Ms Hamidu implored Journalists to use their platforms to initiate public discussions on reproductive health education to ensure policy changes in the implementation of the reproductive health policy education for young people.

She said there was misinformation on reproductive health among some members of the public, saying “everybody out there still needs education and a better understanding of reproductive health. The information out there is still scanty.”

The Bolgatanga based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in the Upper East Region is youth-focused and operates in the Bongo, Talensi, Nabdam, Bawku West, Kassena-Nankana West and Builsa South Districts of the Region.

Its vision is to ensure “Self–reliant and self-sufficient youth living in a more equal, healthy and prosperous society,” with education, adolescents Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), entrepreneurial and employable skills, market access and sustainable farming, environmental sustainability and sanitation as its thematic areas.