Over 300 basic school teenage girls in the Upper Manya Krobo District have received donations of boxes of sanitary pads from a non-governmental organization, SHE4G Foundation on Friday, with a call on them to make it a vision to rise high to build local processing factories in the district.
The Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Foundation, Ms. Vanesa Nimatu speaking to students in a short ceremony at Akateng said the donated item is part of her vision to encourage and motivate school girls in deprived communities in Ghana to fully reach their potentials.
Residents in Upper Manya Krobo are mainly crop and fish farmers, but in the absence of processing and storage facilities, sell their harvests in their raw state.
On the back of this, Vanesa Nimatu admonished students to take their studies seriously to acquire industrious skills to improve the district’s socioeconomic status.
Educating girls on the best menstrual health and hygienic practices, the medical nurse Vanessa Nimatu said, “I want to hear that one day one of these girls I came to talk to is a prominent person and has established a factory in Upper Manya. I have not seen any gari factory in Upper Manya, meanwhile, you produce the largest gari in the country. I am not seeing any fish factory, meanwhile, we have one of the biggest rivers in Akanteeng.”
Asking the gathering especially students to avoid premarital sex, Vanessa asserted that this call if adhere to will reduce the alarming rate of teenage pregnancy in the district.
The five beneficiary schools were Akateng DA, Akateng Manya DA, Otropker Roman Catholic, Otrokper Presbyterian, and Akateng Apostle De Paul basic schools.
Addressing the media after the durbar, SHE4G Foundation CEO noted that the foundation is set to extend its gestures to over 1,500 schoolgirls in the Upper East Region.
Reactions
Appealing for more supports, a teacher and girl child coordinator for Akateng DA JHS, Gloria Asamoah said though she appreciated the kind gesture by SHE4G Foundation, she was looking forward to other organizations to come to the aid of her ‘poor’ girls in her school with a more sanitary pad.
According to her, for lack of menstrual cycle education and poverty, school drop-out and teenage pregnancy have been a menace for the school and the community at large.
Aspiring human rights journalist, Tsameh Gloria, a student of Apostle De Paul international school who was empowered by the menstrual health talk will henceforth encourage female friends about the need to practice best menstrual and reproductive health to keep them healthy
Adding, “I want to be a journalist to help women to move on and protect my country.”
The student body on the female front welcomed the donation following the difficulty to get money to buy sanitary pads during menstruation among girls in the Akateng community, Obuadey Divina told Rite FM after the event.
Stating her encounter with adult men proposing sexual relationships to her, a final year student of Akateng DA JHS declined proposals that came her way having in mind the potential of premarital sex limiting her chances of becoming a medical nurse for her family and siblings.
“Even though in the absence of my mother while I have menstruation, I struggled to buy a pad. However, that will not force me to fall on men to substitute my nursing ambition,” Divina said.
Accompanying the SHE4G Foundation CEO included, the District Director for National Disaster Management Organization Mr. Akor Michael, Mr. Godfred Ceaser – School Health Education Program Coordinator at the Lower Manya Krobo Education Directorate, some opinion leaders from Otrokper, and the media.
Earlier on, May 28 and July 1, 2021, the foundation has donated similar items to female students of Asesewa Senior High School (ASEC) and female inmates and prison officials of the Akuse Prisons respectively in the Eastern Region.
