…as NGO hands out free pads to mark World Menstrual Hygiene Day
Female persons living with disabilities have urged governments at all levels to assist girls at the onset of puberty to maintain cleanliness and good health by making menstrual pads available to them free of charge.
They made this appeal during a sensitisation and awareness programme organised by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Value Female Network in Osogbo, Osun State to mark this year’s World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
Some of the Persons Living With Disabilities, who communicated in sign language through interpreters, explained that because most of them could not afford menstrual pads, they had to resort to using unhygienic clothing materials as menstrual pads during their monthly periods.
They shared stories of how their poor mates living in rural communities could not have access to menstrual pads sold for between N80 and N100 per pair.
Monsurat Adesokan, a deaf and dumb student of the School of Persons Living With Disabilities in Osogbo, told our correspondent that when she started menstruating she was using pieces cut from one of her old clothes as menstrual pads
She, therefore, begged government and other stakeholders in the country to come to the aids of indigent girls and ladies to enable them to procure safe menstrual pads.
Also speaking, a female secondary student of Divine School in Osogbo, called on government and international organisations to work together to ensure that either menstrual pads were subsidised and made affordable or given totally free.
“If condoms could be almost free, then menstrual pads, which are a necessity, should be free,” she said.
Meanwhile, the girls, numbering about 200 were educated and sensitised on how to attain menstrual hygiene.
Addressing the ladies, a health expert, Abigail Idehen, said they should always ensure that they replaced their menstrual pads often during mensuration, while avoiding self-medication in the treatment of cramps occasioned by the monthly circle.
For Miss Modupe Olobade, girls should dispose their menstrual pads properly after usage and avoid sugary edibles during mensuration in order to prevent painful menstruation.
The Executive Director of VFN, Costly Adribigbe, charged government to ensure that Nigerian girls lived a healthy life by providing free menstrual pads for them.
While distributing the free menstrual pads to the Female Persons Living With Disabilities, the VFN boss noted that the gesture was part of the activities to mark the World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
