Why Female Students In Ilorin Were Given Free Sanitary Pads

If you have a female student in a secondary school in Kwara, chances are that she may have received free sanitary pads today.

The free sanitary pads went round girls in secondary schools from across the 16 local government areas of the state.

It is all in the bid to promote menstrual hygiene among secondary school students in the state, following discovery of a low level of menstrual hygiene amongst the girls.

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It is also part of the bid to change the negative social norms around menstruation among girls.

Wife of Kwara State governor Dr Olufolake Abdulrazaq, in the course of the distribution of the free sanitary pads, said poor menstrual hygiene was as a result of several factors, including the lack of education, persisting taboos, stigma and limited access to hygienic menstrual products.

This she said was a disincentives to women welfare as it undermined educational opportunities available to them.

The First Lady, said as at 2021 more than  37 million women and girls of reproductive age in Nigeria lacked access to menstrual hygiene products due to lack of funds.

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This lack according to her, prevented some from reaching their potentials in life, implying that almost half of all women and girls in Nigeria were affected financially.

In response to the above challenge, she said her Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Ajike People Support Centre, had resolved to promote women’s good menstrual health.

Dr AbdulRazaq also informed that she would relent in working towards making menstrual health and hygiene apriority in the state.

The governor’s wife urged males to buy into the vision by seeing themselves as dependable allies in the campaign to promote menstrual health hygiene.

The Eagle reports that it is not only in Kwara that menstrual hygiene education has become important.

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Nnennaya EU et al, in their 2021 research work on “Menstrual hygiene management among adolescent school girls in Taraba State, Nigeria”, for example, submitted amongst others, that: Knowledge about menstruation and menstrual hygiene is critical to the dignity and well-being of girls and women in general

“Regardless of culture, age, and marital status, adolescents need basic, accurate and complete information as regards their body structure and functions, as well other sexual and reproductive health issues. Poorly informed choices and practices have potential for long-term deep negative effects on their reproductive health”, they said.