Suhum NDC Women's Wing Empowers over 800 School Girls to Celebrate the World Menstrual Hygiene Day With Suhum Presbyterian Senior High School.

Suhum NDC Women's Wing Empowers over 800 School Girls to Celebrate the World Menstrual Hygiene Day With Suhum Presbyterian Senior High School.

World Menstrual Hygiene Day aims to create awareness and change negative perceptions around menstrual hygiene, which Suhum NDC Women's Wing collaborated with Engaged Now Africa NGO, which aims to benefit women worldwide while the date 28th of May was selected to acknowledge that 28 days is the average length of the menstrual cycle.

Menstrual Hygiene management can be particularly challenging for girls and women in developing countries who have no proper access to information or facilities. Furthermore, traditional cultures make the topic taboo, not to be discussed, making it further difficult for them to address the issue.

The day was celebrated to highlight the importance of menstrual care and aims to raise awareness about the social issues and challenges faced by women during menstruation.

It also highlights how many women don’t have access to sanitary products and care.

This year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day was celebrated on 25th May 2023 at Suhum Presbyterian Senior High School Assembly Hall by the Suhum NDC Women's Wing in collaboration with the Engaged Now Africa NGO Foundation on the theme of the word “Making Menstrual a Normal Fact of Life by 2030, which aims to contribute in achieving an overarching goal to build a world by 2030 where no one is held back because they menstruate.

Suhum NDC Women's  Wing led by Madam Lydia Ohenewaa Afasi took the sub-theme we are committed to creating a Suhum where every girl has period friendly.

The programme started at the premises of the school. Health personnel from the Suhum Government Hospital Health Directorate gave the talk for the day in the person of Madam Rebecca. She explained Menstruation, or period, to the pupil as normal vaginal bleeding that occurs as part of a woman’s monthly cycle.

Every month, your body prepares for pregnancy. If no pregnancy occurs, the uterus, or womb, sheds its lining. The menstrual blood is partly blood and partly tissue from inside the uterus. She ended the speech by asking questions from the pupils which were all answered.

Madam Rebecca took the opportunity to advise the pupil not to laugh at their colleague ladies when they notice such changes.  He also cautioned them to be very careful whenever they start their menstruation because it goes with pregnancy.

There was a demonstration on how to wear pads during menstruation and also a presentation of sanitary pads to the school by the Suhum NDC Women's Wing led by Madam Lydia Ohenewaa Afasi and some of the NDC's Women organizers who came from other constituencies did the presentation to the Senior house Prefert for the School took the present on behalf of the school. 

A total of Eight hundred (800) sanitary pads were distributed to the young girls in the school.

Suhum NDC Women organizer Madam Lydia Ohenewaa Afasi speaking with Alrich24newsgh.com news reporter Apelete Kofi-Michel said she observed the girl child education is saddled with many barriers including period poverty, thus lack of access to menstrual materials (pads) which mainly results in high absenteeism and school drop out for the girl child.

She added, hinted that the special needs of girls such as money to buy sanitary pads have been cited as two of the reasons for high dropout rates for girl children at both upper primary and junior high school levels.

Menstrual hygiene management is a challenge faced by many girls and women. She said the organization has been involved in several projects tackling the problems faced by women and girls around the Suhum by providing sustainable and cost-efficient solutions to those challenges.

Some of the students thanked the organizers for their gifts, especially the NDC women's wing of Suhum.

 Story by Kofi Michel/Alrich24newsgh.com