By Prince Acquah, GNA
Cape Coast, June o7, GNA – Just Smile Foundation, an NGO empowering the adolescent girl child, has distributed free sanitary pads to girls in the Imam Khomeini Islamic Basic School and Wesley Girls Basic School in the Cape Coast Metropolis.
The Foundation also sensitized them to adopt proper menstrual hygiene practices to manage their menstrual cycle healthily.
The move by the Foundation was also to help curtail teen pregnancies in the Cape Coast Metropolis which had been identified as the third in teen pregnancies in the Country.
More than 109 students in Cape Coast benefitted from the donation which formed part of the commemoration of World Menstrual Hygiene Day in the Metropolis.
Lady Rev. Vivian Offin, a founder of the Foundation, took the students of the Imam Khomeini Islamic Basic School at Amamoma, through how to calculate their menstrual period and how to use the sanitary pads correctly.
She urged the girls to see menstruation as a natural characteristic of every woman instead of a curse.
Mrs Offin who is a Lady Pastor at the Cape Coast Family Sanctuary of the Victory Bible Church International, maintained that menstruation and the lack of proper management of same should not be the reason why a girl’s education should be truncated.
She advised them to stay away from early sex and report men that made advances at them to the authorities for prompt action.
Lady Rev Mrs. Offin said the Foundation was poised to contribute their quota to the development of the country hence the need to assist in resolving issues confronting the growth of the youth.
At the Wesley Girls Basic School, a professional nurse, Ms Eugenia Djan took her turn to also educate the students on the need to have proper personal hygiene during menstruation.
Ms Djan said it was critical that adolescent girls kept their period hygienic to ward off infections and boost their confidence in public.
She taught them basic Reproductive and Sexual Health issues to help them know the implication of early sex.
The students expressed gratitude to the Foundation for the gesture.
World Menstrual Hygiene Day is celebrated every year on May 28 to create an annual awareness to highlight the importance of Menstrual hygiene management at a global level.
The Day was initiated by the German- based NGO WASH United in 2013 but was observed for the first time in 2014.
The Foundation observed in the at the weekend because it was waiting for support from its partners.
GNA
