The Rotary Club of Kumasi-Nyiaeso, has presented 432 pieces of sanitary pads to teenage girls in the Trabuom R/C Primary and Junior High School (JHS) in the Atwima-Kwanwoma District.

The Rotary team, headed by Mr. Enoch Baffoe-Bonnie, its Presidential Nominee, together with Mr Titus Nkansah, the head teacher distributed the gifts to the girls, when the team visited the school.

Mr Baffoe-Bonnie said the donation formed part of the Club's menstrual hygiene education and sensitization programme to girls, which would be replicated across every deprived community in the country.

He said the gesture also complemented Rotary’s avowed objectives of giving to charity and this included the provision of social infrastructure to make life better for people living in the rural communities.

The Club had also conducted free eye screening for people in very deprived areas and provided free eye glasses to improve vision, he said.

“Globally, the Club since its establishment in 1905, has been instrumental in polio eradication worldwide and has helped the poor, destitute and the needy,” Mr Baffoe-Bonney added.

Earlier, Madam Akua Achiaa, Senior Staff Nurse at the Trabuom Health Centre, educated the girls on their biological make-up and the need to see menstruation as a normal physiological process of every growing girl.

She urged the girls not to feel disturbed or uneasy when they see the ‘monthly issue’ and taught them how to keep proper menstrual hygiene at all times to prevent infections.

“All you need to do is to maintain a strict intimate hygiene by bathing regularly, changing your sanitary pads in between times and disposing of the used ones the right way”, she added.

Madam Achiaa also sensitized the menstruating girls on their sexuality, the need to be assertive not to give in to any form of enticement to indulge in premarital sex, warning them they could be pregnant if they did.

Madam Theresa Moreena Darko, the District Education Directorate’s Girls Education Officer, also reiterated the need for them to concentrate on their books and desist from early and premarital sex to avoid unwanted pregnancies as well as the risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease like HIV and syphilis.

“You must study hard or learn a vocation to become responsible adults”, she added.

The head teacher of the school, called on philanthropists to help construct a mechanized borehole, computer laboratory and toilet facility for the school.