Asesewa: Newly Posted Nurse Distributes Over 1000 Sanitary Pads to Mark International Menstrual Hygiene Day
Miss Vannesa Nimatu, Director and Founder of SHE4G Foundation Ghana, has, today Friday, 28 May 2021 distributed sanitary pads to over one thousand Asesewa Senior High School in the Upper Manya Krobo District to mark the International Menstrual Hygiene Day.
Civil society organizations and health interest stakeholders over the world have marked the 2021 Menstrual Hygiene Day under the theme, “More Action and Investment into Menstrual Health and Hygiene Now”.
Addressing the students and gathering at Asesewa Senior High School, Miss Vannesa who is a medical nurse at Otrokper since November 2020, admonished students to desist from indiscriminate sexual activities, saying “you are in school to learn and so focus just on your education but nothing more.”
The salary awaiting nurse who targeted to reach 1, 700 basic and senior high school teenage girls in the Upper Manya Krobo district, had at the last hour limited her charity to girls in the second cycle schools following inadequate support from expected donors.
“I targeted 1,700 girls for this program. Even though I called on the Assembly, GES, and other bodies for support but there weren’t any coming for this moment. I had to withdraw my little coins and fall on some few friends who came in at the eleventh hour,” she told Rite FM after the event.
A final year student of ASEC, Charity Delali Narh who could not hide her excitement, thanked SHE4G Foundation and the Member of Parliament for their widow’s mite since the opportunity has given them knowledge on the hygienic use of sanitary pad during menstruation.
In a similar development, 100 selected school girls from the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality were also not left out in the party.
At Akuse Presbyterian Church, where the menstrual hygiene day durbar was held, Mr. Goldfred Ceaser speaking to Rite FM’s reporter Klo Tettey said, aside from the schools teaching menstrual hygiene sensitization throughout the week, some sanitary pads were also distributed to students to commemorate the day.
He also encouraged parents to pay attention to their children’s menstrual needs. According to him, this will avoid teenage girls falling prey to indiscriminate sexual relations.
The School Health Programme Coordinator for the municipality, Mr. Ceaser says both boys and girls from all schools in the Akuse circuit were sensitized on menstruation management.
Teenage pregnancy is on the increase in the Lower Manya Krobo municipal. Data available at the health directorate indicates that 108 teenage pregnant were recorded between January and March 2021.
Meanwhile, a public health nurse at the directorate, Mrs. Sophia Dei Told Rite FM after the durbar and presentation of sanitary pads that menstruation awareness programs such she had witnessed will help reduce the burden on teenage girls, thereby curbing the teenage pregnancy menace.
According to her, “for a menstrual problem they are having here is how to have a pad to maintain menstrual hygiene. .. Because we have been recording high teenage pregnancy in our municipality and doing a little investigation we realize that they were having challenges with the pad to take care of. Therefore they fall on some men to buy a pad to take care of themselves.”
Stakeholder institutions present to observe the day were Ensign College of Public Health, Ghana Health Services, Ghana Education Service, and some health interest non-governmental organizations.
