CEF put smiles on faces of 500 girls, others with gifts of sanitary pads, soaps

A large number of beneficiaries made up of children, young girls and women of Agboyi 2, in Ketu suburbs, benefited from the distribution of sanitary pads, anti-bacterial soaps and pure cotton pants at an event organised by Children Empowerment Fund (CEF), a non-governmental organisation that cares for children in terms of their welfare as well as educational needs.

The exercise was premised on inculcating in young girls the proper hygienic method of observing their menstrual circle.

Speaking at the occasion, the Programme Manager, CEF, Temitope Akinrotimi, said the programme was to address hygienic menstrual cycle among young girls.

“We usually reach out to young girls in under-served communities where they do not have access to sanitary materials like sanitary pads and the likes. In like manner, we visited this community and took a survey and realised that quite a number of young girls here either do not use sanitary pads at all or may be use them randomly because they cannot afford the price and therefore opt for tissues or rags. This is the reason we are carrying out this project today.

“In addition to sanitary pads, we also distributed antibacterial soap because we speculate the people do not bathe as they should, due to the type of water available here, which is dirty and could be toxic and we have chosen this type of soap that can rid whatever germ that is capable of affecting their health.

“We also distributed underwear to support their menstrual hygiene, knowing that many girls do not change their pants regularly and it is not an understatement that some girls can use a pant for five years, hence we are using this medium to change the narrative by giving them new pants and the type we have giving them is pure cotton pants that are healthy and good for their menstrual cycle. We held a lecture prior to distribution to explain to them the benefit of cotton pants during their mensuration.

“Though we made provision for 500 young girls, at the end of the day, both old and young women came and we had to give them,” she said.

Akinrotimi said what they had given them would take them for six months and that there would be a follow up to know if there is any development in the area of health issues regarding their menstrual cycle.

“This is the first time we are carrying out this type of programme here in Lagos as our focus has been Northern Nigeria. We have now realised that the people here in the South too need help. We also support schools in Sierra Leone, Burundi and other African countries in their under-served communities. I am proud to add that we are sister organisation of mission enablers, which is a mission agency that caters for missionaries on mission fields and also support missionaries in various fields across Africa,” she said.

Baale Oruba, Agboyi II, Taiwo Lamina, appreciated the effort of CEF and sought for further help in the areas of water, secondary school and building of a bridge to connect the community with Ketu, among others.