Female students of the Bunkpurugu Senior High and the Nakpanduri Senior High schools in the Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo, have received sanitary pads from the Bright Generation Community Foundation to hygienically take good care of themselves during menstrual cycle.
Madam Bernice Dapaah, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation presenting the items, explained that many girls from the communities were from poor homes, hence their inability to purchase the modern pads to hygienically take care of their monthly periods at the age of puberty.
She said instead of going to the store to purchase the pads, too many girls and women resort to whatever was available including using old clothes, leaves, mud, and newspapers.
Madam Dapaah said most girls' inability to meet the demand and to avoid leaks and stains in public; they simply remain at home and miss school or work each month, saying the beneficiaries would receive the sanitary pads until they complete their education.
"Without resources to catch up in school, girls get further and further behind in classes, fail in their exams, get discouraged and drop out of school. The lack of affordable hygienic products and facilities, compounded by negative cultural attitudes, has profoundly and adversely affected the education of puberty-age girls in Africa", she said.
According to her, a UNICEF report indicates that one-in-10 school-age African girls stays home during her period (menstrual cycle) or drops out entirely thus encouraging the NGO to initiate the Menstrual Pads for Dignity Initiative that seeks to provide a pathway for girls in deprived communities to remain in school.
She noted that the initiative believes that improving the plight of women and girls in Ghana was one of the central challenges of our time that must be addressed to empower them as a prerequisite to conquer poverty and diseases.
Madam Dapaah said apart from the provision of menstrual pads for girls, the initiative would also provide information to maturing girls and women on menstrual cycle and puberty to reduce stigma and perception surrounding the subject hardly discussed in most communities.
Mr. Philip Laari, the District Chief Executive of Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo commended the NGO for the intervention, noting that such initiatives were very important in enhancing good health.
He said the district was still the most deprived district in the entire country and encouraged more benevolent organizations to assist the area in whatever capacity to bring development.
The beneficiary students from both schools lauded the initiative of the Foundation for the support and appealed for more of their colleagues to be given the pads since most of them were faced with the same challenges.