Health
AHF Launches Pad Bank For Menstruating Girls, Women In Benue
From Attah Ede, Makurdi
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a non-governmental organization, on Tuesday, promised to establish a pad bank for young girls in Angwan-Jukun, a community located in the heart of Makurdi, the Benue State capital to enable them have access to free sanitary pads.
The Foundation further said they take issues relating to women and girls seriously and want to play a part in safeguarding the menstrual health of people in the state.
Speaking during a symposium organised by the AHF -Nigeria to mark the 2024 Menstrual Health Day held at Agyogoyo, Angwan-Jukun community, Makurdi, Benue state, AHF-Nigeria Advocacy/Marketing Manager, Steve Aborisade, assured that the AHF would partner with the state government to provide sanitary pad in the State.
Steve said the idea of setting up the Pad Bank is to help those young girls that don’t have the means to get the sanitary pads to be able to access them free of charge.
According to him, some of those girls do not know when their menstrual periods start and it might just start on their way to school or the church and by this they get stained, they can just rush to the Pad Bank explain to the person there and get a free pad.
He further said the Pad Bank would be cited at the home of the traditional head in the community for easy access and AHF would collaborate with other government agencies and CSO’S to make the project a reality.
Aborisade called on national and state houses of assemblies to make legislation that could compel government at all levels to provide free sanitary pads to girl children in schools in order to ameliorate challenges faced by those who could not procure any one.
He also said this years theme was tagged Period Poverty because these girls don’t have access to sanitary pads due to the high price in the market and with that, they use things that are not to be used thereby causing damage to their body system.
” We would follow up with going to see the members of the State House of Assembly, even if it is 0.5 percent of the budget which should be devoted to the girls in providing sanitary pad for them, would be a welcomed idea.” He said
“We have about 600 girls presently benefiting from this project, and each the girls is being given two months supply of free sanitary pads and are being educated on how to use it,” Steve said .
Also speaking at the program, Hon. Peter Uche, Chairman House Committee on SDGs and NGOs Benue House of Assembly, commended AHF for organising the program, which is aimed at educating the girl children.
Hon. Peter said some of these girls are so naive about how to take care of their body and this is why the girl child education is very key especially in various homes.
” Some parents don’t want to even talk to their daughters about Sanitary hygiene and this would lead to unwanted pregnancy which brings about depression on the girl child.
“The level of illiteracy among our juvenile is quite alarming. We live in a religious society that when you talked about juvenile, it call for concerned. So many girls have lost their lives. It is good that AHF is organising this programme to educate them about their menstrual cycle.
“Parents should be involved in this campaign because they have a role to play. When an issue come, some parents send their child out of their homes, forgetting that there is needs for rehabilitation and bring the child back home.
“Some parents don’t listen to their children when they complain about their hygiene but are eager to chase them out from the house when they come home with unwanted pregnancy.
Therefore, this programme should be held across the state. What the girls are experiencing today is an opportunity to key into to earn a good living”, Uche stated.
He pleaded with parents to always put the education of their children first and be watchful of the type of friends and company they keep, and to also lecture them in proper hygiene.
Also speaking at the event, Dr. John Ugboji the Senior Regional Medical Manager AHF, cautioned the girls to pay attention to their hygiene and that AHF not only support the girls with materials, they also support them with the knowledge on personal hygiene.
He intimated the girls that, their knowledge about menstrual hygiene, would determine how their life turns out to become and by this improving their lifestyle.
On part, the Mental Desk officer of Benue State Aids Control Agency(BENSACA), Mrs. Martina Adiyia enjoined the girls to see menstrual circle as a time for celebration as it is not a curse or a disease for one to be ashamed of.
She said BENSACA which is mainly in charge of people living with HIV/AIDS would also take on the issue of providing free sanitary pads to young girls as an external program into the Agency.
One of the beneficiaries who identified herself, Monica Terna, appealed to government to come to the aid of the girl child by providing for them free sanitary pads especially in rural communities.
She said making the kits available by this it would help in reducing infections in most of the girls as some of them don’t have the means to get these pads.
highlight of the event was distribution of sanitary pads and demonstration to the girls on how to use a sanitary pad and the different types of sanitary pads to use which was done by Dr. Laadi Swende Family physician Federal Medical Centre Makurdi.
Hundreds of millions of children and adolescents around the world face daily violence in their homes, schools, and elsewhere which could have lifelong consequences.The World Health Organisation (WHO) said this on Thursday.The violence includes being hit by family members, being bullied at school, as well as physical, emotional, and sexual violence, WHO said.
In most cases, violence occurs behind closed doors. More than half of those aged two to 17 or more than a billion minors in total experience violence each year according to the WHO. In three out of five children and adolescents, it is physical violence at home, with one in five girls and one in seven boys experiencing sexual violence.Between a quarter and half of minors are affected by bullying according to the information provided.Only half of the children reportedly talk about their experiences of violence and less than 10 per cent receive help.Lifelong consequences could include depression and anxiety disorders, or tobacco and drug use.As a result, many children do not reach their learning potential in school.Against the backdrop of being highly preventable, violence remains a horrific day-to-day reality for millions of children around the world leaving scars that span generations,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general.The UN’s first conference on violence against children opened in Bogota, Columbia on Thursday.At the two-day conference, more than 100 countries pledged to find ways to better support overwhelmed parents and introduce school programmes against bullying and for healthy social behaviour.They also pledged to raise the minimum age for marriage.Some countries wish to generally ban children from being hit at school or home. (dpa/NAN)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has listed 17 bacteria, viruses and parasites that regularly cause disease as top priorities for new vaccine development.WHO, in a study published on Tuesday, reconfirmed long-standing priorities for vaccine research and development (R&D), including for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis – three diseases that collectively take nearly 2.
5 million lives yearly. The study is the first global effort to systematically prioritise endemic pathogens based on their regional and global health impact. Attention is also given to pathogens such as Group A streptococcus, which causes severe infections and contributes to 280,000 deaths from rheumatic heart disease, mainly in lower-income countries.Another new priority is Klebsiella pneumoniae — a bacteria that was associated with 790,000 deaths in 2019 and is responsible for 40 per cent of neonatal deaths due to blood infection (sepsis) in low-income countries.The new study supports the goal of ensuring that everyone, everywhere, can benefit from vaccines that protect against serious diseases.It aims to shift the focus in vaccine development away from commercial returns towards regional and global health needs, WHO’s Dr Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz, who works in vaccine research, said in a statement.He explained that in the past, vaccine R&D typically was influenced by profitability.“As a result, diseases that severely affect low-income regions received little attention.“We hope this represents a critical shift where we want to change the focus from commercial perspective profitability of new vaccines towards the actual health burden so that the new vaccine research and development is driven by health burden and not just commercial opportunities,” he said.To carry out the study, WHO asked international and regional experts what they think is important when prioritising pathogens for vaccines R&D.Criteria included deaths, disease and socioeconomic impact, or antimicrobial resistance.“We had asked experts that have expertise in pathogen epidemiology, clinicians, paediatricians, vaccine experts from all of the WHO regions, to ensure that the list and the results that we produce really reflect the needs of diverse populations worldwide,” Hasso-Agopsowicz said.Analysis of those preferences, combined with regional data for each pathogen, resulted in the top 10 priority pathogens for each of WHO’s six regions globally.The regional lists were then consolidated to form the global list, resulting in the 17 priority endemic pathogens for which new vaccines are urgently needed.To advance vaccine R&D, WHO has categorised each pathogen based on the stage of vaccine development and the technical challenges involved in creating effective vaccines.Hasso-Agopsowicz said the study is expected to guide future vaccine R&D investments, including funders, researchers and vaccine developers, and also policymakers as they “can decide whether to introduce these vaccines into immunisation programmes.” (NAN)
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan,has suspended the strike it embarked on Oct. 25.The workers resumed work on Friday morning.The seven-day nationwide warning industrial action embarked upon by the unions was to press home their demands ofadjustment of Consolidated Health Salary Structure as was done with the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure sinceJan.
2, 2014 and implementation of consultant cadre for pharmacists in federal health institutions. Others are upward review in the retirement age from 60 to 65 years for health workers and 70 years for consultants, andpayment of outstanding salaries of JOHESU members in professional regulatory councils.The UCH JOHESU Chairman, Mr Oladayo Olabampe, said that the strike was suspended as directed by the national body.He explained that “the suspension followed an MoU signed between JOHESU national leadership and Federal Government.“The Federal Government asked for a maximum of six weeks counting from Oct. 31, to meet our demands.“Based on the MoU signed, the JOHESU National Executive Council met and resolved that the strike be suspended on Fridaynationwide.”According to him, JOHESU UCH is obeying the order, and workers have resumed work.Olabampe said that if the demands were not met after the six weeks, they would embark on an indefinite strike. (NAN)
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