The African Immigrants Resources Centre, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in the United States, has distributed over N5m worth of free sanitary pads to 1,000 girls and 300 young women in Imo State.
The organisation, as part of its ‘Give A Girl A Pad (GAGAP) Initiative programme,’ distributed the pads to girls and women of the Umuebe Eziala and Ubaa communities, both in Emii town, Owerri North council area of the state.
Other items distributed were deodorants and educational books.
Speaking at the end of the two-day distribution exercise, the centre’s convener, Mrs Chimezie Oji-Kalu, said that the gesture was borne out of a need for girl child support and hygiene education in rural communities.
Oji-Kalu said that the centre keenly observed that rural girls and women were susceptible to infections as a result of poor menstrual hygiene and lack of knowledge, hence the intervention.
“Apart from housing homeless African immigrants in the US and Nigeria, we also provide hygiene education and sanitary pads for teenage girls and sometimes vulnerable young women.
“We came to distribute the pads to the girls, but because it is a rural area, we found out that many women around can neither afford the pads nor do they know how to use them, so we’re extending the pads and hygiene education to them all.
“Our call lines are available and can be accessed through our website, www.airc6674.org, for anyone that wants to reach us for the partnership to support teenage girls and vulnerable ones maintain their hygiene,” she stated.
She thanked the centre’s volunteers for taking the GAGAP message to Abuja, Abia, Port Harcourt, Imo, Lagos, Nasarawa and Niger states. She called on governments at all levels, as well as good-spirited Nigerians, to support the initiative.
Similarly, the GAGAP coordinator in Abuja, Mrs Rita Ebuta, said that the centre’s interventions have equipped teenage girls with proper hygiene measures and sex education, thus contributing to their psyche development.
Speaking, Samuel Okoro, a GAGAP ambassador, while commending the initiative, urged the government to take child care and child rights education to rural communities to enlighten rural dwellers on healthy practices.
Miss Favour Chinedu, another GAGAP ambassador, called on the government to prioritise advocacy for girl child education and support despite growing economic challenges.
Another GAGAP ambassador, Mrs Chioma Nwachukwu, described Oji-Kalu as “a woman with a golden heart” and prayed for divine protection and blessings to enable her to continue her humanitarian activities.
The GAGAP coordinator in Imo State, Mrs Ogochukwu Eziaku, advised the program’s beneficiaries to use the pads to their fullest potential while following the hygiene lessons taught by the centre.
A community social worker and GAGAP ambassador, Mr Boniface Nwadike, said that monthly menstruation diminishes self-confidence among girls who might be unable to afford sanitary pads, hence the intervention.
Miss Rita Nwoke, one of the beneficiaries who spoke on behalf of the girls, thanked the organisation for thinking about the community and pledged to apply the lessons.
