Lola Cater for the Needy Foundation, an NGO, on Wednesday, took menstrual cycle, sexual and gender based violence awareness campaign to students of Junior Secondary School, Karu in the FCT.
Ms Ololade Ogunnubi, the Founder of the foundation, said the campaign was part of activities to mark this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day, to be celebrated on May 28.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the day, which is celebrated globally, aims at raising awareness on the importance of good menstrual hygiene management at a global level.
Ogunnubi said that the event, which has as its theme; “Debunking Menstrual Myths”, was organised in collaboration with the Catholic Relief Services.
She said that the organisation decided to take the campaign to students at the grassroots to break the misconceptions about menstruation and raise awareness on the need to promote good menstrual hygiene.
“We are taking this campaign to school children across five states FCT, Nasarawa, Lagos, Ogun and Oyo and we are not limiting it to only female students, we want the male students to also learn about it.
“The event which started on Monday, May 24 in Nasarawa State, will last till June 11 and it will feature talks on menstrual hygiene management, water, sanitation and hygiene practices, as well as sexual and gender based violence.
“We are also putting them through on different sanitary products and how to use and properly dispose them.
“We intend to create a culture that welcomes discussions without shame and make adequate education on these topics for both boys and girls.
“There are children who stay away from school whenever they are menstruating due to lack of menstrual hygiene management products, which is not meant to be,” she said.
Mr Wilson Atumeyi, a facilitator, who spoke on the topic ‘sexual and gender based violence’, also called on the students to always speak up whenever they were molested.
Atumeyi, who stressed that they could be violated physically, emotionally or psychologically, charged them to always share their problems with their parents, guardians, school counselors and trusted adults who could help them get justice.
Ms Rejoice Ajayi and Master Omego Kenechukwu, both J.S.S 3 students of the school, appreciated the group for the lecture, adding that they had learnt new things about menstrual hygiene management.
NAN reports that the event featured the distribution of sanitary pads, stationeries, flow monitoring cards, information materials among other materials to the students. (NAN)
