As the world marks 2022 Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management Day, Minister of Women Affairs Dame Pauline Tallen, has called for inclusion of women and girls with disability in the advocacy for menstrual health.
She made the call in Abuja at training organised by a non-governmental organisation Tabitha Cumi Foundation in commemoration of the 2022 Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management Day celebration at the Abuja School of the Deaf, Kuje.
Represented by a staff of the ministry, Ms Gloria Ekanem, the minister highlighted the challenges faced by girls and women with disabilities and stressed the need for their inclusion in all infrastructural designs, policies and provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities to support them.
“Infrastructure design is an inevitable part of menstrual health and hygiene. Partnering with women and girls with disability organisations and organisations of persons with disability throughout the cycle of menstrual health programming will help to identify the needs of women and girls disability and design or adapt menstrual health and hygiene programme to be inclusive without leaving anyone behind”, she said
Executive Director, Tabitha Cumi Foundation, Mrs Tayo Erinle, explained that the choice of empowering girls with disabilities was to educate them on how to manage their menstrual period hygienically, increase their self-esteem and reduce school absenteeism.
Principal of the school, Razak Sirajo, commended the government and organisers, for the one-year supply of the sanitary pad and other hygiene kits which would provide succour for the students, who are mostly from less privileged homes.
There was distribution of hygiene kits and sanitary pad as part of the “Always Keeping Girls in School project” sponsored by Procter and Gamble to empower 1,500 girls in 20 FCT schools and 10 schools in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
Reporting by Azizatu Sani; editing by Muzha Kucha
