Hundreds of teen girls living in the Nuaso Old Town Electoral Area in the Lower Manya Krobo municipal of the Eastern Region have received sanitary pad support from an Accra-based non-governmental organization.
Facilitated by an aspiring Assembly Member of the area, Mr Isaac Tetteh Kofi Nomo; the Fact Foundation has delivered sanitary pads that will cater for menstruation concerns for a period of 12 months.
Fact Foundation is a benevolent group of young men and women who came together to offer free material and non-material assistance to teenagers across the country.
Consisting of individuals of various professions, Wing Commander Christopher Gaeddah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Foundation in an interview with trustfmonline.com on Saturday said his team took the initiative to assist society in reducing menstrual problems among young girls.
Understanding the difficulty among teenage girls in meeting their adolescent reproductive and health needs, Wing Commander Gaeddah said, “we know girl child hygiene is a problem everywhere, so we decided to mobilize support for these children with female hygiene needs.”
Notwithstanding resorting to unhygienic means like using socks, newspapers, dirty rags, cotton wool, toilet tissue and dried leaves; several media reports suggest that some of these ‘poor’ teenage girls exchange sex for money to buy a sanitary pad.
Mrs. Abdul-Latiff, CEO of Eco-me Africa Amdiya once told Joy Prime, “they are easily available in the rural communities, so anything at all that can absorb and hold blood, that’s what they use.”
The drive for increasing teenage pregnancy and sexually infectious diseases are associated with difficulty in easy access to reproductive health and menstrual needs, including sensitization.
Ms Princilla Bapayana noted that quantities of pads worth 3 months of usage were given out to beneficiaries, adding that, more pads were going to be delivered in 3 monthly intervals for one year.
Calling for sustainability of the pad project, Ms Bapayana, Director of Project for the Foundation said individuals should extend support to the foundation to enable it enter into more deprived communities.
Who Brough Fact Foundation to Nuaso?
Mr Isaac Kofi Nomo, 29, known among friends as Gariba lobbied Fact Foundation to come to the assistance and support of girls in the Nuaso community.
According to him, he contacted a friend after his research revealed that most girls in the community could not afford sanitary pad to cater for menstruations.
“A friend I made this known to connected me to Fact Foundation; fast forward it had agreed to come and support since it forms part of the areas of operations,” Nomo Kofi said.
Mr. Nomo is one of the 5 candidates vying for the seat of the Nuaso Old Town Electoral Area at the Lower Manya Krobo Assembly in the recent upheld District Assembly elections.
While he still hold onto his dream to represent his people, Mr Nomo looks for windows of opportunities to get more sanitary pad support for woman of menstruating ages in his community and has thus pledged to support any other societal need in his area.
