Love Your Menses, an NGO, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Nigeria donated 48 cartons of menstrual hygiene sanitary towels to women and girls in Bwari, FCT, on Saturday.
The Federal of Ministry of Health and two NGOs, Society for Family Health and Sustainable Healthcare International, also supported the donation.
Donating the towels at the Local Education Authority Primary School at Bmuoko community in Bwari, Miss Ada Ukatu, Project Manager of Love Your Menses Nigeria, said the donation aimed at promoting menstrual hygiene.
She said the donation was informed by research findings within FCT communities, which left much to be desired.
“It is a pitiable situation to find out that teenage girls were using unhygienic materials like rags during their menstrual flows as many families cannot afford sanitary towels.
“I had to relay this to my partners in the U.S.A and spoke with them about this and they were overwhelmed about the development.
“They felt they could actually impact teenage girls and mothers positively and that was how we started this project.
“We carried out our first project in Karu community, then to Lugbe community and here we are today in Bmuoko community of the FCT,’’ Ukatu said.
She expressed appreciation to the Rotary Club for the support to ensure that women and girls in the communities maintained good hygiene during their menstrual flows.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the occasion, Rotarian Okonkwo Cheima, President of Rotary Club of Abuja, District 9125 Kubwa Gateway, said that the project was part of activities to commemorate the Rotary 2020 Family Health Day.
He explained that the Health Day is an annual event often carried out to support humanity and the less-privileged in rural-urban communities.
“We chose this community because we discovered it is within our Fellowship area; we also realised from needs assessment that the community needed support.
“From the needs assessment, some projects we want to do here include donation of borehole, health centre and toilet facility for the primary school.
“The school does not have good toilet facility; this project is one of the things we are bringing to the community to create awareness about the health situation.
“We have everything needed in primary healthcare to assist the community; we have distributed sanitary towels for those do not have money to afford them.
“We came with HIV testing kits, vitamins for children and pregnant women also,’’ Ocheima said.
In another interview, Bmuoko Community Leader, Mr Yaya Ibrahim appreciated the Rotary Club for its support to improve the wellbeing of community residents.
He commended the organisation for selecting the community as one of the centres for its activities.
“They will repair our children’s school toilet; the place is in a very bad condition at the moment.
“They are also going to provide us with a hospital through collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and sink a borehole for the community.
“They have started with free medical check-up; if you have sickness (an ailment) they can provide first-aid treatment here and refer you to a hospital for further treatment,’’ Ibrahim said.
A beneficiary, Mrs Mary Joshua, also expressed appreciation for the sanitary towels to ease the burden often experienced during menstrual cycles.
“I am very happy about the sanitary towels; at least I will save money used to buy pads in the next two months.
“It will help me a lot. Sometimes when my flow begins, it might be at midnight and since I now have towels handy, I will no longer panic,’’ she said.
A teenage beneficiary, Miss Osandiaye Precious, 14, expressed appreciation to the organisation and the Rotary Club, saying the donation would help to save parents the cost of providing for her.
Precious said: `I thank them for everything they have done for us. They have helped a lot of people in our community to save their money. God bless them.’’ (NAN)
