Medical professionals have urged increased support for women and girls in vulnerable communities by providing essential amenities such as clean water, adequate toilet facilities, and tax exemptions on sanitary products.
Speaking on Wednesday on Wednesday, May 28, to observe this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day, the experts also enjoined women and girls to maintain proper hygiene by using clean menstrual products, practice regular bath, hand washing, and oral hygiene practices among others to reduce the risk of infections and improve the overall well-being.
A family physician at the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Makurdi, and President of the Medical Women Association, Benue State Chapter, Patience Okpeh, emphasised the need for women and girls to adopt proper hygiene practices. She called on community members to be supportive especially against the various forms of stigmatisation during menstrual period.
“My message to the women and girls especially during menstruation is to appeal to them to regularly use clean menstrual products, change sanitary pads, wash underwear and dry properly, as well as disposed the used sanitary products in ways that would not cause environmental hazards.
She further stated that the government and other relevant authorities should provide the needed social amenities for easy access to improve the plight of women and girls in vulnerable communities, stressing that such menstrual products could be made available in schools and public places of convenience.
On the role of healthcare workers in addressing the prevailing challenges of menstrual hygiene in Benue State, a family physician at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, Grace Atokolo, stated that the medical women and other healthcare workers can be supported to carry out outreach to the remote villages in the state.
She noted that it was more proper to embark on such campaigns with those sanitary products to be given in large quantities after medical assessment of the beneficiaries.
“As medical women, we have taken this as a major priority to educate women and girls seeking medical care. We have also taken it upon ourselves to carry out a yearly menstrual hygiene advocacy in schools, the media and community engagements to better the lives of menstruate. This is why the government should provide standards toilets in public places to support menstrual hygiene.
She also maintained that as medical practitioners, they are obligated to create of awareness, sensitise patients and holding media campaigns on safe menstrual health practices, reaffirming the need for schools and organizations to make provisions for facilities, sanitary pads and other menstrual hygiene products to curtail the challenges menstruate.
Responding, Esther Gbayan, a medical doctor at FMC, Makurdi, said a collective approach should be adopted by parents, caregivers, schools, organisations and the government, to address the challenges of menstrual hygiene among women and girls by making the menstrual products free for access.
Menstrual hygiene needs a collective approach in order to actualize this global public health challenge ranging from parents, schools, organizations, caregivers, and the government through the education of the public. Menstrual products should be made free for easy access to all women and girls in need of them.
Similarly, some humanitarian workers in Benue State have emphasised the need to addressing major gaps in water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure that create barriers for women and girls, especially during menstruation.
They made the pronouncement considering the role of non-governmental organizations in curtailing the predicament of vulnerable communities and disadvantaged groups in the society.
In response to findings from the joint report by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, which revealed that two out of five schools globally offer menstrual health education, with studies in Sub-Saharan Africa reporting rates as high as thirty one percent, Programme Manager Okaha Women and Children Development Organisation (OWACDO), Queen Oka, said schools in Benue State should adopt favourable policies that would enable women and girls effectively manage their menstrual period.
She added that schools and the government should build the capacity of teachers to attain to the needs of their female students, calling for the support of men especially against the societal stigmatization and challenges women faced during menstruation.
This year’s theme “Together for a Period Friendly World” intensifies the call for collective action by stakeholders to ensure that menstruation does not limit access to education, health or opportunity for women and girls in the society.
