The Catholic Relief Services, Ghana (CRS) has celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day at Tongo in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region to raise awareness on the challenges women and girls face during their menses.

Speaking at a stakeholder durbar to mark the celebration which is observed on May 28 every year, Mr Michael Gyimah, the Head of Operations of the CRS, noted that menstruation was one of the biggest problems women faced across the world, and said lack of education, awareness and poverty were the reasons behind poor hygiene during menstruation.

This year’s event was held on the theme: “No limits; Empowering women and girls through good menstrual hygiene”

“It is thus important for the CRS and partners to be involved in this celebration to focus not only on the difficulties faced by adolescent girls when their periods start, but also on creating the enabling environment for the adolescent girl to practise good Menstrual Hygiene,” he said.

Mr Gyimah said the welfare of women and the girl child was dear to the CRS because of the important roles women played in the society, adding that there was enough evidence to prove that girls grew into more productive women after climbing higher on the educational ladder.

According to him, good menstrual hygiene management was key to ensuring that young girls developed their full potentials through the education they received in schools, and indicated that “it played an important role in promoting retention of girls in schools.”

He said it was imperative to support girls address their menstrual challenges to enable them to compete and learn alongside their male counterparts.

Mr Gyimah said “the theme for this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day entreats us as parents, community leaders, health personnel, educationists, and the District Assemblies to create the enabling environment for girls to thrive and take on responsible roles in future”.

Dr Philip Darko, the Programmes Manager for the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) of the CRS said the Integrated Community Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement Project (ICOWASH) was one of the flagship programmes of the CRS.

He said the project was aimed at improving on the health and wellbeing of over 152,300 school children and adults in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region, and the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, and indicated that the ICOWASH project was a follow up to the I-SHINE project which was implemented from January 2014 to June 2017.

Dr Darko said ICOWASH was a three-year project valued at 6.5 million United States dollars, and was funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust.

He said the Talensi and the West Mamprusi Districts were “not doing well” in the WASH per the District League Table, and so the CRS intervened to help them improve in the WASH to promote good healthy life.

“Our target is that by the time this project ends, all communities, schools and health facilities in these Districts are declared WASH friendly, ”Dr Dark said.

Dr Christopher Boatbil, the Talensi District Chief Executive (DCE) thanked the CRS for contributing immensely to the development of the Talensi District and Ghana as a whole, and appealed to the CRS to help provide conductive structures at various schools in the District to enable girls to change their sanitary pads when they menstruate in school.

The CRS as part of the programme, presented boxes of sanitary pads and soap, disinfectants, pens and notebooks to schools in the area.

The Puso- Namogo Junior High School emerged winners in a quiz competition between them and the Awaradone and Yameriga Junior High Schools.

A drama was performed by the school children to sensitise the community members on menstruation and to dispel the stigma their male counterparts associated to it.