Media campaign gets N15m hygienic materials to address period poverty

Sanitary Pad Media Campaign (SPMC) has taken delivery of some 10,000 packs of reusable sanitary pads from Diatom Impact, a subsidiary of Platform Capital, to alleviate period poverty among vulnerable schoolgirls from low income and poor communities in Nigeria.

Put at N15 million, the National Agency for Food Administration and Control (NAFDAC)-approved hygienic products, donated by the investment advisory firm in Lagos, are for rural and disadvantaged women and children.

Managing Partner, Platform Capital, Dolapo Ogunmekan, commended SPMC for empowering less-privileged persons in Africa with free sanitary pads in the last 12 months.

He pledged his company’s support for the initiative, adding that SPMC’s Executive Director, Anike-Ade Funke Treasure, had a “track record of sincerity and integrity.”

In her remarks, Treasure said the donation would ensure that disadvantaged girls in Nigeria and some parts of West Africa do not miss classes during their menstrual cycles.

She observed that the inability of many parents to purchase sanitary pads was both social and human rights issue.

“Period poverty is a problem that girls and women in underserved communities and urban centres have grappled with for years. Girls still use socks, leaves, rags and pieces of cloth cut from wrappers to absorb the blood.

“A large number of them use bushes as change spaces during their periods because there are no toilets in schools. Otherwise, they drop out of school and return after their periods. Some don’t make it back to school. SPMC is anchored on Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which focuses on gender equality.

“It seeks to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, in accordance with the programme of action of the International Conference on Population and Development, Beijing Platform for Action and outcome documents of their review conferences.”

Founded in 2020, SPMC came up with a sanitary pad media scholarship for school-age girls in Nigeria. The scholarship was flagged off last year in October, and so far, they have about 185 girls on board, who receive a pad box filled with sanitary pads, soaps, sanitisers and underwear monthly for a whole year.