The Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency, SWIDA Ghana has made distribution of some menstrual hygiene materials and basic PPE, as it partners other stakeholders to celebrate this year’s menstrual hygiene day.
The distribution of the materials and the basic PPE were made to young people of Dingoni in the Nanton District.
Every May 28, nonprofits, government agencies, the private sector, the media, and individuals come together to celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Day (MH Day) and advocate for the importance of good menstrual hygiene management (MHM).
This year, MH Day recognizes that periods do not stop for pandemics and will continue to drive home the idea “It’s Time for Action“.
This theme highlights the urgency for the collective work needed to both change the negative social norms surrounding menstruation and also catalyze progress toward empowering women and girls to unlock their educational and economic opportunities.
Over 800 million women and girls menstruate every day, yet across the globe they face barriers to properly managing their periods.
The social stigmas and taboos surrounding menstruation often prevent women and girls from attending work and school.
Even when they do attend while menstruating, the lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, lack of sanitation infrastructure such as private toilets and hand washing facilities, and lack of menstrual hygiene education can prevent women and girls from reaching their full potential in the classroom, in the workplace, and at home.
As part of its activities to ensuring the spread of the COVID – 19 is limited, the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency handed to a number of boys and girls, nose masks and hand sanitizers to aid them keep to the basic safety protocols the World Health Organization and the Government of Ghana have been pushing.
Rural communities have mostly been left out in the drive and education for social distancing and other protocols, making it difficult for people in those areas to change their attitude.
Speaking after the distribution of the menstrual materials and COVID – 19 preventive items, the Executive Director for SWIDA, Hajia Alimah Sagito Saeed called on all to contribute to helping “positively to stop the spread and get ourselves back to normal soonest”.
She added that it has become necessary for communities and individuals to adjust to the new ways of doing thing due to the pandemic, but must be conscious of what we do and how we do them.
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