By Enock Akonnor enockakonnor2013@gmail.com
The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has presented 200 cartons of sanitary pad to the management of Islamic Senior School through implementers of GAMA Sanitation and Water Project.
They are to serve 4,800 female students of the institution so as to enable them manage their mensturation in a more hygienic way through its utilization.
Presentation of the items was done by Charlotte Agyei-Marfo (Capacity Building Coordinator for GAMA) on Thursday 25th May 2023; a time the Ministry through officials of the GAMA SWP were having their version of the commemoration of the world menstural hygiene day with the students at the forecourt of the school.
Picture (Some of the students of Islamic Senior High School at the event)
Picture ( students displaying a typical traditional dance)
They were received by the Headmaster in charge of administration Amidu Tahiru.
Picture (Chief of Ampabame and his entourage)
Gracing the pomp occasion were Nana Ahwenie-Bodom (Kokofu Dwantoahemaa) who was the keynote speaker, Dr. Josephine Kyei( Senior Lecturer-University of Ghana at the School of Nursing), Chief of Ampabame Nana Kwabena Bonsu Kanii III ( Otumfuo Swaduhene), Tijani Mohammed (officer at the regional Chief Imam), among others.
Picture (Ing. Asiedu in a handshake with Chief of Ampabame)
Receiving the items on behalf of the school, the Headmaster in charge of administration thanked the officials for the gesture and other support offered to the school by the ministry.
He recalled an 18-unit modern toilet facility which the Ministry has awarded for construction in the school, describing it as a great opportunity.
Addressing the occasion, Kokofu Dwantoahemaa Nana Ahwenie-Bodom urged the gathering to shun superstitions and myths surrounding menstruation.
She cited how some women are even prevented from cooking on the basis that they are in their period.
Nana Ahwenie-Bodom on the premise of the foregoing admonished that menstruation is not a taboo and that all must kick against superstitions that have imprinted bad impression on the minds of people against menstruation.
Speaking at the event, Ing. George Asiedu (Coordinator of the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project) mentioned that “access to improved water supply and sanitation facilities with appropriate hygiene management features are the surest way for an effective and efficient menstrual hygiene management”, adding that “the girl child and women in general can manage their periods hygienically, safely and privately with DIGNITY when they have access to an appropriate household and institutional sanitation facility and appropriate sanitary products”.
He said that the GAMA/GKMA project has been committed to the above course since its inception in 2015 and has contributed towards the provision of over 48,246 improved toilets and 437 disability and gender friendly schools’ sanitation facilities: equipped with adequate water supply and solid waste management features and an exclusive changing room for girls purposely for managing their period.
GAMA official further indicated that the project intervention has supported over 206,000 schoolgirls, representing 51% of the 404,000 school pupils population that have benefitted from the project institutional sanitation sub-component.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the provision of quality and clean toilets with menstural hygiene as one of the key focuses must be part of the new thinking. The toilet can no longer serve one as a place to defecate but also a safer and convenient place for women and girls to manage their period.
I would therefore plead with MMDAs who still award contracts for school toilets without meeting these basic requirements for the girl child to consider this new thinking and to those who still award contracts for school blocks without toilets to reconsider the plight of the adolescent girl.”
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