June 1, 2021
BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
At the Official launch of the Operational Plan of the Hands off Our Girls Campaign and the commemoration of the International Menstrual Hygiene Day staged at the Freetown City Council Auditorium.
His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio has over the Weekend, requested Sierra Leoneans to question the backward traditional notions and taboos around menstruation that has the propensity to cause anxiety, fear, and shame among school going girls and fashion a common vision on menstruation.
President Bio encouraged parents to inculcate the habit of disseminating knowledge about menstruation to their girls and women by creating appropriate educational resources around menstruation both in formal and non-formal education spaces.
He stressed that they must also speak about the benefits of good menstrual hygiene for women and girls, and also be Local champions, opinion leaders, citizens, in order drive that change and tackle the mysticism around menstrual education.
President Bio also called for a good communications plan that include persons in the creative arts which will also be helpful in changing attitudes of people around menstrual education. He further encouraged to invest in a safe, dignified, and female-friendly water and sanitation facilities at school and at home so that girls and women can safely practice menstrual hygiene since women and girls, in particular, lack consistent access to menstrual hygiene products.
“We must also seek to address the affordability of menstrual health products. Low-income households often prioritize what the family spends money on. Most of the time, it is not on menstrual hygiene products. Through the work of the First Lady, every school-going girl in Sierra Leone receives a year’s worth of menstrual hygiene products”, he said.
President Bio continued that in the long run, he deems broad cross-sectorial engagement to develop a comprehensive national menstrual health policy a necessity adding that, the benefits are enormous.
He suggested that the Ministries of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Health and Sanitation, Water Resources, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Social Welfare and other stakeholders can collaborate with development partners and international institutions to meet that objective.
He acknowledged that all these interventions take collaboration, partnerships, and resource mobilization within communities, across Government, with the private sector, institutions, and within regional organizations.
The president encouraged all and sundry to ensure that the common vision for safe and dignified menstrual hygiene comes to fruition because of its benefits for human capital development, gender empowerment, and future inclusive national development.
He disclosed that the theme for this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day, “Action and Investment in Menstrual Hygiene and Health” urges all Sierra Leoneans to take stock, and also think deeply about what they can do about the hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leonean women who are confronted with challenges to properly manage their periods.
He concluded that Social and cultural stigma; lack of knowledge about menstruation; lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities; and more importantly, lack of menstrual hygiene products constitutes those barriers and therefor said that, the implications for education, social inclusion, and health have been well-documented and presented. “For instance, girls can miss up to 20% of their education and consequently fail to complete and transition to higher education”. He concluded.