Parents urged to ensure good menstrual hygiene of their daughters

Municipal School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator in Lower Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region, Godfred Ofoe Caesar has called on parents, particularly mothers to ensure the menstrual hygiene of their daughters.

Mr. Caesar who was speaking during this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day observed over the weekend at Akuse said girls, if properly educated on menstrual health, would reap its benefits during those periods.

Menstrual Hygiene Day (MH Day) is a global advocacy platform celebrated each year that brings together the voices and actions of non-profits, government agencies, individuals, the private sector and the media to promote good menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) for all women and girls.

This year's theme was "Action and Investment in Menstrual Hygiene and Health."

“We employ that parents also take it upon themselves to educate their young girls, particularly those who have not started menstruating, to start educating them so that when they get into it, they shouldn’t be found wanting,” said Mr. Caesar.

Schools in the municipality, as part of the occasion, undertook a weeklong sensitization and education of school children in the municipality regarding their menstrual hygiene.

According to the SHEP Coordinator, first aid boxes in the various schools must also be stuffed with sanitary pads for use by the students in times of “emergency.”

Selected pupils and students of all the basic schools in the Akuse community and the Akuse Methodist Senior High School converged at the Akuse Presby Church to mark the day.

Resource persons from the Ghana Health Service, the Ensign College of Public Health (ECPH) and some Non-Governmental Organisations took turns to address the students on management of menstrual hygiene.

The event was organized with the support of NGOs such as Rescue volunteers and Rebranded Ladies and the Ensign College of Public Health who shared menstrual hygiene items and nose masks to the students.

Madam Sophia Dei from the Municipal Health Directorate while underscoring the relevance of the day noted that acquiring a pad was difficult for most girls.

According to her, men took advantage of such vulnerable girls who requested money from them for pads.

“The menstrual problem that they’re having here is how to have a pad to maintain menstrual hygiene. Our research indicate that many girls are being impregnated by men whom they fall on for money to buy pads.

“…We have been recording high teenage pregnancy in our municipality and during some little investigation we realized that they were having challenges with pads to take care, therefore, they fell on some men to get money to buy pads to take care of themselves and these men end up impregnating them,” said Madam Sophia Dei.

The event was therefore aimed at helping adolescents come out of these difficulties.

The participants were also expected to disseminate the acquired knowledge to their peers back in their various schools.

The event was chaired by Dr Edward Kofi Sutherland, a Medical Director at the Ensign College of Public Health who also serves as Site Director at the University of Utah Center for Global Surgery, West Africa.