Menstrual hygiene: UNICEF and HAFAI trains adolescent schoolgirls on washable pads

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday trained  adolescent girls in Osun public schools on how to make washable sanitary pad for effective menstrual hygiene management.

The training was part of a four-day workshop organised by UNICEF in collaboration with Health Aid For All Initiative (HAFAI) for secondary school adolescent girls on menstrual hygiene management in Iragbiji, Osun,

The UNICEF representative, Miss Hyeladzirah Shalangwa, said the training was aimed at helping young girls to have access to affordable sanitary pad during mensuration.

Shalangwa, who noted that many young adolescent girls could not afford the disposable pad due to its high price, said the training would assist them on how to make washable pad on their own.

According to her, the training will also assist in reducing waste disposal, since the pad is washable.

She added that the training would create consciousness of menstrual hygiene management and empower the girls, saying they could even make and sell the washable pad.

“There is no doubt that sanitary pad is expensive and the quality is deteriorating but with this training on washable pad, girls are good to go,” she noted.

The resource person at the programme, Mr Femi Aluko, said the training would create menstrual hygiene management on the consciousness of the girls.

Aluko, who is a lecturer at the Department of Community Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said since the washable pad could not be disposed, it would help in waste disposal management.

Prof. Nkadi Onyegbegbu, the National Coordinator of UNICEF ‘ Win 4 Girls Project ‘ in Nigeria, urged girls to avoid using herb for menstrual pains.

She said taking herbs for menstrual pain could destroy the kidney and other vital organs in the body.

She advised that “lying on a bed with two legs raised up would assist in reducing menstrual pain.”

Menstrual hygiene: UNICEF trains adolescent schoolgirls on washable pad



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