The Global Affairs Canada (GAC)-funded project, tagged, “Reaching and Empowering Adolescents to make informed Choices for their Health (REACH)”, is designed to sensitise students and adolescent groups on menstrual hygiene.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the REACH project is implemented in in Kaura Namoda and Talata Mafara Local Governments Areas (LGAs) of Zamfara state, through the Save the Children International (SCI), a health-based NGO, to mark the 2021 World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
Speaking in Kaura Namoda town on Friday, Hajjia Zainab Usman, the Advocacy Coordinator in charge of the Project in the state, said that the event was held simultaneously in Kaura Namoda and Talata Mafara LGAs.
She said that the event was aimed at enlightening women on the importance of menstrual hygiene.
“The Menstrual Hygiene Day is an annual awareness day on May 28, initiated by the German-based NGO, ‘WASH’, to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene management at a global level.
“You know, the menstruation cycle is an extremely critical period in women’s reproductive life.
“Menstrual hygiene is not the menstruation cycle itself, but for women to improve hygienic condition during their period cycle.
“We noticed that women experience problems of poor hygienic condition, stigmatisation and lack of proper care from family and community,” the coordinator said.
She called on the government to provide sanitary items and convenient points at public places, including schools, to enable those in their menstruation period to clean up.
She charged every male adolescent, to know how to support women during the menstruation period
.
In her presentation, Hajiya Inno Sarkin-Zamfara, the Maternal and Newborn Child Health (MNCH) Coordinator in Kaura Namoda LGA, said that improper hygienic conditions during menstruation could lead to Sexually Transmitted Diseases and other infections.
She called on parents to always ensure proper hygienic management of their children.
The Deputy Director of Health, Kaura Namoda LG Council, Alhaji Kasimu Umar, commended the SCI and GAC for choosing people in the LGA to be part of the beneficiaries of the REACH project.
Umar called on the participants to ensure that they extend what they have learned from the event to the public.
He assured that the council will continue to support the programme.
A Representative of the state Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Hajiya Rashida Umar, commended the GAC and SCI for funding and implementing various programmes to promote women and children in the state.
She said that the ministry has planned a programme to encourage women at the grassroots to make local hygienic disposable sanitary pads.
She assured that the ministry will continue to collaborate with development partners and other stakeholders in the state. (NAN)