By Aderogba George
Zaks Foundation for Humanity (ZFH), an Abuja based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), on Monday urged female students to pay special attention to their menstrual health.
The Founder/Chairman of the NGO, Mr Aliyu-Zakari Ahmad said this at a menstrual hygiene lecture for students of Government Junior Secondary School Nyanya Gbagi, Abuja.
He said the lecture was part of the organisation Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme.
Ahmad said that the lecture was also initiated to commemorate the 2024 International Children Day, an event celebrated annually by the foundation.
“We are here to educate the students about menstrual health hygiene menstrual hygiene is a serious problem, and that is what we call period poverty.
“Some of these students know absolutely nothing about menstrual hygiene care. Some of them don’t know what to use when they are having their period poverty.
“Some of these students resort to pieces of clothes, some of them use newspaper, some of them use tissue papers, some use feathers in the rural areas.
“In some secondary schools that we have visited especially in boarding schools, what we discovered is that during their menstrual circle, they use pieces of mattresses’’, he said.
The foundation chairman explained that period poverty is not limited to female students adding that even the elderly ones in the rural area do not use sanitary pads.
He said that the foundation was collaborating with some international organisations to introduce re-useable sanitary pads especially for the people in the rural areas.
Mrs Ladi Ibrahim, the Admin Officer of the foundation called for more efforts in educating students about menstrual hygiene.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) globally about 500 million women go through period poverty every month. In Nigeria the figure stands at 27 million.
He said that 23 per cent of the 27 million are of school age between age 15 to age 24.
(NAN)