A youth organisation known as Youth Summit Port Harcourt and some secondary school students have canvassed for a subsidised and affordable price for sanitary pads in Nigeria.
They urged the government at all levels to consider prioritising the hygienic well-being of the girl child especially teenage girls who are grappling with self-awareness and the economic realities of the country.
Speaking during the distribution of sanitary pads to Secondary School girls at Community Secondary School Umuede-Mbah, in Etche Council area of Rivers State on Friday, the Convener of Youth Summit Port Harcourt, Grant Bestman said despite how insignificant sanitary may seem to people, the price has become so expensive that most ladies can hardly afford it.
While noting that the distribution of pads is the second phase of an initial tagged “Pad A Project”, where over 500 packs of sanitary pads are given to secondary school girls who not afford them, Bestman stressed that the aim was to encourage them to have a sanitary hygiene.
He said: “We are having our second round of Pad a girl project in Etche. The idea is for us to reach out to the girls in this secondary school as much as we can to share as many pads as we can give to them to encourage their sanitary hygiene, it is a project birthed by the Youth Summit. We want to encourage the girls to take their hygiene seriously. We realise that when you have a healthy women community, you most likely have a healthy society.
“The cost of pad for example has actually gone up which has made it a bit difficult for some girls to afford, hence this project. The economy has not been very helpful in terms of women’s accessibility to sanitary pads. As little as people may think it is, it is expensive.
He, however, called on the government to specifically ensure that sanitary pads are affordable and accessible to young girls and women.
Some of the beneficiaries, Ibekwe Gold, and Samuel Jennifer, expressed appreciation to the youth group, saying the gesture was life saving because it would go a long way in reducing the burden on the parents.
According to Gold: “I feel that it is good and I love this gift you people have given to us, what I’m going to say is thank you for the gift you have given to us”.
Jennifer said: “I feel very very happy because this country is very bad for us to buy pads now, pads are very costly, I say thank you to everyone
“I pray that the government reduce the money for the pad, the pads are very costly not all pads are sold at the rate of Seven hundred Naira some are sold at the rate of Eight hundred, Nine hundred, One thousand naira, I pray that the government reduce the price of the pads to at least Five hundred naira and make it available under the prices of Five or Six hundred naira last.
” So that the money will be low for us because it is not every time our parents find it difficult to buy pads for us, so that by ourselves, from the side money we get or money given to us by our older brothers and sisters, we can use it to take care of ourselves for the pad.”
Meanwhile, the School principal Mr Kelvin Elebon, commended the group for the gesture, saying; “it’s a thing that is worth doing and an organization like this coming to give my students this kind of gift is a kind of relief to the girl child, at least you have educated them and they have known what they are supposed to do as a girl to keep themselves neat.
“I so appreciate and I want to appeal that if such an opportunity comes from time to time you do this, it will go a long way to help the students know their left from their right in terms of keeping themselves clean and making themselves sanitary upkeep so I so appreciate, for you people to having this programme, having the child or the girl child at heart, I say thank you, I appreciate, God bless you, thank you”
Another person was asked to introduce herself, she said, “My name is Samuel Jennifer, I come from a community secondary school Umuede-Mbah”.
How do you feel receiving these gifts of sanitary pads from the people she was asked, ” How bout the government making a provision for all of these things to make them free, doing a free supply for you guys, what would you say, she was asked, ” I will say thank you, if they do free things for us, I’ll say let the government do it for us because it’s not easy to do free things in this country again, the country has turned upside down”.