A NON-GOVERNMENTAL Organisation (NGO), Loveled Foundation, in partnership with the Nigerian Girls Guild Association and others, has urged government to encourage local production of sanitary products and ensure free distribution to girls in rural communities as it does with the male folk on contraceptives.
 
They made the call in Lagos during the distribution of free reusable sanitary pads to teenage girls in Ifako-Tomaro community, Apapa, Lagos State, to prevent health implications arising from poor practices.
 
Also notebooks and menstrual monitoring cards donated by Lola Cater for the Needy Foundation, one of the events partner was also given to the teenage girls.

At the event tagged, “Sanitary Pads Drive 1.0 to celebrate the 2022 World Menstrual Hygiene Day in the nation’s economic capital, teenage girls were also tutored on proper menstrual hygiene and production of reusable pads.
   
The foundation’s founder, Chika Ewuziem, said lack of proper menstrual hygiene had been a major issue affecting teenage girls in rural areas, especially Islands where government and corporate entities seemed to have neglected.

He noted that poor menstrual hygiene could pose serious health risks like reproductive and urinary tract infections that can result in infertility and birth complications.
 
Ewuziem said inadequate sanitary facilities, lack of access to affordable and quality menstrual hygiene products, as well as stigma and social norms associated with menstruation, contributed to poor hygiene.
   
He stated that driven by the need to address the situation, especially with the price of sanitary pads up to 500 per cent, the foundation and its partners distributed free menstrual hygiene kits to teenage girls in the community and also equipped them with information and knowledge on how to make reusable sanitary pads for themselves.

Youth Co-ordinator of the Nigerian Girls Guild Association, Lagos State chapter, Adebayo Taiwo Ayomide, observed that menstrual hygiene practice in the country was poor, hence the call for more sustainable solutions.
  
Also, founder of Iyanu Reusable Pad Empowerment Project, Shonde Iyanuoluwa, said: “We are empowering girls on how to eradicate menstrual period poverty by distributing free reusable sanitary pads to teenage girls in rural communities, which will last them for about two years.”
 
She deplored harmful materials used by teenagers during menstrual period, including animal dunks, tissue papers and pieces of dirty clothes, which could cause great harm to them.

Iyanuoluwa said poverty had limited many young girls from assessing healthy menstrual products, hence the reusable sanitary pads are being taken to the community.

A mother, Mariam Agunbiade, commended the foundation for the initiative, stating that it would assist families that could not afford sanitary pads for their teenagers.