By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
A coalition of select Bauchi based NGOs have developed an innovative and cost effective approach to promote menstrual hygiene management within target groups.
The coalition unveiled the program tagged “Period Reality” on Thursday 9th November 2023 amidst encomiums from invited guests and other key stakeholders in the health sector.
Giving an overview of the program Executive Director of Alwadata Life Line Initiative (ALLI) Mrs. Winifred Yusuf said that the Period Reality initiative has become imperative especially looking at the ignorance associated with management of menstrual periods amongst girls and caregivers.
Mrs. Yusuf said that apart ignorance, the cost of managing menstrual periods in households, schools and absence of basic needs like toilet facilities and water in some public institutions, has actually triggered the coalition into designing and advocating for the use of reusable sanitary pads amongst girls and women during such periods.
She said that the coalition had been carrying out sensitization and awareness campaign on the need for women and caregivers that cannot afford disposable sanitary pads to switch over to reusable ones that has a life span of two years.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, Executive Director of Attah Sisters Helping Hand (ASHH) Foundation Ms. Comfort Attah said that menstrual hygiene management has gone beyond restricting it to the women folk alone and that men too need to be well informed on how to manage such periods when it happens in their house holds.
Attah said it is the responsibility of a husband or father to, as a priority, make adequate provision for sanitary pads for his spouses and daughters and that, where disposable sanitary pads can’t be afforded, the reusable ones can bridge such gaps for effective management of menstrual hygiene within communities.
She stressed that the coalition will be carrying out advocacies activities to influential members of communities on the need to be procuring such vital basic needs to be given free to schools and vulnerable target groups with a view to promoting menstrual hygiene within their environments.
Executive Director, Kairos Initiative, Dr. Moji Iheme while thanking invited guests for honoring the Coalition’s invitation, said with the commitment of the Coalition, soonest, girls won’t have any cause to miss classes during their periods.
She further pledged that the coalition would go beyond just advocating for the use of reusable sanitary pads, but will also champion provision of adequate and user friendly facilities like toilets, water, effective disposal systems and general sanitation and hygiene within public institutions and households.
The Kairos Initiative ED then said that the doors of the Period Reality coalition are open for more collaboration and donations from well meaning members of the public in order to further strengthen the Coalition’s drive for cost effective, efficient and timely Menstrual hygiene management in Bauchi State and beyond.
Our correspondent reports that the Bauchi based NGOs that formed the “Period Reality” initiative are: ATTAH Sisters Helping Hand (ASHH) Foundation, Community Advocates for Rural Development (CARD), Alwadata Life Line Initiative (ALLI), Kairos Initiative (KIN) and SABEERASH.
There were goodwill messages from sister NGOs and International Partners, pledging their support of the “Period Reality” initiative being championed by the Coalition.
Highlights of the occasion was the demonstration on how reusable sanitary pads can be manage for maximum utilization.