Include boys in menstrual hygiene education — Dr Senayah
A medical Officer at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), Dr Rejoice Senayah, has called for the urgent need to include boys in menstrual hygiene education in order to enable them to understand the difficult changes their colleagues at school and sisters go through during menstruation.
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This, she said, would help to curtail the stigma adolescent girls experience in school making them skip classes whenever they were in their period.
Dr Senayah said this when members of the Precious Pearls, a young ladies wing of the Women’s Ministry of the Pentecost International Worship Centre (PIWC) at Atomic with the support of its School Outreach Ministry (SOM), marked this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day with about 1,300 girls and 200 boys from some selected public schools within the Atomic Circuit in the Ga-East Municipality in Accra.
The schools were Police Model Basic School, Kwabenya Atomic MA1, Kwabenya Atomic MA 2, Kwabenya Atomic MA, Kwabenya Atomic MA 4, and Kwabenya Atomic MA 5.
The celebration was also in collaboration with the Municipal School Health Education Programme (M/SHEP) and the Girl Child Unit of the Ga-East Education Directorate and was on the theme “Together for a Period Friendly Ghana”.
Dr Senayah took the participants through an in-depth presentation on the scope of menstruation, menstrual hygiene, pregnancy tendencies and related myths.
The Girl Child Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Ga-East Municipality, Irene Amoah, in her opening remarks, reiterated the need for a continuous collaborated effort among all relevant institutions in shaping the young girls to understand menstrual hygiene and its related issues.
Increase awareness
The Municipal Coordinator for the School Health Education Programme (SHEP), Lydia Armah Bilson, also highlighted the objective of the celebration, which she said was to increase awareness among adolescent girls on menstrual hygiene and draw the attention of young girls to the fact that menstruation was part of every girl’s development process and not a stigma.
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The leader of the Women’s Ministry of PIWC-Atomic and the proprietress of Sparkling Jewels International School, Gifty Agyemang, bemoaned the possible danger and predicament many young girls faced especially during their adolescence.
She spoke about teenage pregnancy and expressed readiness and commitment within her capacity in offering continuous support to the GES to safeguard the girl child. At the end of the programme, about 1,000 participating girls were each presented with a pack of sanitary towels.