Menstrual Hygiene Day helps keep girls in school — E/R Minister
The Eastern Regional Minister, Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey, says the yearly observation of Menstrual Hygiene Day across the country and beyond is aimed at helping to maintain young girls in school for their future.
“Menstrual hygiene is an important component of public health, human rights and dignity.
It is not merely a question of personal hygiene.
Women and girls’ education, health, well-being and social participation are negatively impacted when they do not have access to reliable information, sufficient facilities or reasonably priced sanitary products”, the regional minister emphasised.
Mrs Awatey made the remarks when she addressed participants in this year’s Eastern Regional Menstrual Hygiene Day commemoration at Klo-Agogo Senior High School in the Yilo Krobo Municipality on the theme: “Together for a period-friendly world”.
The 2025 Menstrual Hygiene Day Commemoration in the region was made possible by the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council, the Eastern Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service with sponsorship from Women’s World of Health, a non-governmental organisation, and Access Bank.
As part of the programme, the sponsors distributed sanitary pads to over 1,000 girls in the Klo-Agogo Senior High School and girls in the basic schools in the town.
The Eastern Regional Minister noted with concern that the theme for this year’s programme was more than a slogan but rather it was a call to action.
She said: “It invites men and women, young and old, individuals and institutions to join hands in breaking the silence, dismantling stigma and building a world where menstruation is met with dignity, not shame or struggle.”
A Medical and Public Health Practitioner and Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Women’s World of Health, Gifty Teimle Doku, said many girls were forced to use papers, rags and leaves among others to manage their periods because they could not afford sanitary pads.
She, therefore, lauded the government’s efforts in launching the free sanitary pads distribution initiative, saying her NGO would continue to support in whatever way possible (sanitary pads distribution to school girls) in order to maintain them in school during their periods.
Menstruation not excuse
The Yilo Krobo Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Francis Addo Akumatey, a teacher by profession, advised girls not to use their menstrual periods as an excuse to skip classes as those excuses would not help them.
The Head of Women and Youth Public Banking of Access Bank, Roselind Akko, and the Municipal Director of Education for Yilo Krobo, John Kwame Gasu, took turns to address the participants in the event.
