NGO urges parents to prioritise purchase of sanitary pads for adolescent girls
Women Activist in Bauchi State have advocated for the purchase of menstrual pad as compulsory requirement for students resumption to check the spread of infectious diseases among adolescent girls.
This formed part of the key decisions taken during a one day sensitization for sixty basic school students in Misau Emirate organized by WaterAid with funding from DP World.
Speaking during the event marking the end of the weeklong Global Handwashing Day Celebration, Hajia Suwaiba Lawal of WODASS, a Bauchi based NGO, said this became necessary to sustain the initiative of donors who set up pad bank in schools where environmental health clubs were established.
She expressed disgust over the inability of school management to stock the pad bank with menstrual product for use by adolescent girls during school session, saying this might thwart effort to encourage enrolment, retention and completion of school by the girl-child.
Hajia Suwaiba Lawal therefore appealed to education authorities across the State to advise parents to regard the purchase of menstrual pad a necessity to guarantee the safety of their children who would become mothers of tomorrow.
Speaking in the same vein, Hajiya Safiya Yaudara of RUWASA urged adolescent girls to prioritize handwashing at critical times such as during menstruation, cooking, fetching water, washing utensils and even while shaking hands with friends to prevent transmission of infection within the school and community.
