Menstrual Hygyiene: Promotion should not be nine-day wonder

Ms Sandra Boakye, an expert in menstrual hygyiene, has called on stakeholders to ensure continuous promotion of menstrual hygyiene and that it did not become a nine-day wonder.She said advocacy must be done throughout the year in order to sensitise the public on the need to support girls and women rather than observing it for only a day.Ms Boakye, was addressing members of Journalists of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector: Ghana WATSAN Journalists' Network (GWJN) at a trainer of trainees capacity building.Also, the Executive Director for 'Inspire Her,' a non-governmental organisation, Ms Boakye said by so doing, myths about monthly menstrual flow, which put females at a disadvantage as well as period poverty (lack of logistics to manage menstrual hygiene) would be a thing of the past.Ms Boakye said regularly promoting menstrual hygyiene would assist easy and affordable access to menstrual products (pads), provision of facility usage, especially for girls in schools, among others in managing thei r menses.Continuous advocacy and sensitisation would also help females to choose and use the right products, stick to changing times and above all, protect them from contracting sexually transmitted infections, she noted.Ms Boakye said there was the need to also advocate for the affordability of menstrual products, by so doing, girls would not resort to prostitution, in order to get money to buy products to manage their periods.She said due to this, some teenage girls became pregnant, committed illegal abortions or even were forced into marriage.After using the products, users should also be concerned about how to dispose used pads and others to keep the environment clean and safe, Ms Boakye said.Government should make the achievement of the Strategic Development Goal six, by committing to the promotion of menstrual health.She called on the Ghana Education Service and the Ghana Health Service not to relent on making the cause possible.Mr Justice Lee Adoboe, National Coordinator of GWJN, said adv ocacy role was not the sole preserve of females as everyone is a product of the menstrual cycle.He charged his colleague journalists to speak and advocate for change.Source: Ghana News Agency