A non-governmental organisation, Khadija Cares Foundation, in partnership with Health and Hope Initiative Foundation (HHIF) has donated environmentally friendly menstrual items to girls and women between the ages of 12 to 25 years as part of its agenda to end period-poverty in Ghana within the next decade.
The donation took place at Agona Duakwa in the Central Region, and also seeks to discourage the use of disposable menstrual products which are harmful to the planet and encourage the use of sustainable ones; such as menstrual cups, period underwear and reusable pads.
“In the next decade, we are hoping to make a big change to end period-poverty in Ghana to preserve the environment – by making make the switch from disposable items to these sustainable ones. A study by the UN stated that one in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa misses school during their period, which can add up to as much as 20 percent of a school-year. This widens the equality gap,” stated the founder of Khadija Cares Foundation, Khadija Dukar Adams.
Ms. Adams, while speaking to B&FT, added that as much as her foundation is ready to help they are facing financial difficulties; hence they are calling on people to help support these women and girls.
“Our challenges have mainly been funding. We are very new – just under two months old, so this is all self-funded at the moment. I’m hoping that we get the word out and attract more people to invest into the ladies and give them all of these sustainable products.”
She reiterated her commitment to extending the donation exercise to other communities and regions, so as to serve the foundation’s purpose of supporting women’s menstrual health.
“This our first donation, but it doesn’t stop here. There are many other communities that we would like to identify all over Ghana – not just the Central Region, not just Greater Accra, we want to go to the North, Volta and so on.”
The Programmes Director and Board Secretary of Health and Hope Initiative Foundation, Solomon Acquah, noted that they are looking forward to receiving more girls as well as sponsorships to be able to cater for them.
“We started the menstrual education in Sunyani where we have one of the projects, but we started in the Central Region in January. It’s part of our road-map this year to come and give them such sensitisation.
“Our target is to pick as many girls as we can, and we are only praying for sponsorship so we can support a lot of them nationwide,” he added.
A beneficiary of the Health and Hope Initiative Foundation, Mariama Adams, expressed her excitement by saying: “I am very grateful to Khadija Cares Foundation for giving us reusable menstrual pads, which will help us. We usually find it difficult to buy disposable menstrual pads because of the price, so the reusable pads will save us the cost and can last for 10 years”.
