Girls from some Senior High Schools (SHS) in the Northern Region have appealed to government to supply them with sanitary pads to help improve their personal hygiene.
They also called on government to undertake a campaign to educate people in deprived communities on the need to maintain good menstrual hygiene to help curb infections.
The girls from the Tamale Girls SHS, Business SHS, Tamale Islamic Science SHS and Savelugu SHS made the appeal over the weekend after partaking in the maiden mock parliamentary session under the Young Female Parliamentarians (YFP) initiative to debate issues affecting girls.
The YFP, an initiative of NORSAAC with support from ActionAid Ghana, is a platform for deliberation on issues that affect women and girls in their schools, communities and districts, and it ensures increased confidence and assertiveness of beneficiaries to speak up against issues affecting them.
Topics debated included: “’Should sexuality education be part of school curriculum’; ‘Is low knowledge on menstrual hygiene and personal hygiene a result of ignorance or poverty’.
The girls said poor menstrual hygiene could lead to infections adding that lack of access to sanitary pads to handle menstrual periods affected attendance in schools hence the need for government to help salvage the situation.
They also called for the incorporation of sexual education in the curricula of schools to provide students with adequate information on sexual and reproductive rights.
Miss Yeri Nancy, Project Officer at Gender and Governance Department of NORSAAC, urged young girls to continue to make their voices heard to get the needed change they deserve.
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