Girls Excellence Movement (GEM), a local non-governmental organization with focus on inspiring girls, has presented 44 boxes of sanitary pads to girls of the Tsito Senior High Technical School in Ho West District of the Volta region.

The pads are estimated at GHC4,312.00 and would help some of the girls to desist from using rags and pieces of cloth as pads.

Ms. Juliana Ama Kplorfia, the Executive Director of GEM, said the gesture was to support girls from deprived communities, who could not afford pads.

The Director said many girls also absented themselves from school during their menstrual periods, due to lack of pad, affecting teaching and learning.

She said GEM had so far supported girls in 26 Senior High Schools in the southern sector of the country, since its inception in 2008, and would soon provide similar supports to those in the northern sector.

The Director said it was a grave injustice against girls and women to categorize sanitary pads as luxury goods in the Ghana Revenue Authority Guideline with tax imposed on it.

Ms. Kplorfia said the 20 percent import levy imposed on sanitary pads made it an expensive commodity, “meanwhile buying sanitary pad is not for luxury, but a necessity in every girl's life until menopause”.

She said it was therefore imperative to exempt sanitary pads from all forms of taxes just like condoms, and that, “menstrual flow, which is called period, should end a statement, and not a girl's education".

Madam Victoria Achoribo, the Headmistress of the School commended GEM for the support and urged the NGO to extend the gesture to other schools, especially those in deprived communities.

Some beneficiary students who spoke to GNA expressed their gratitude to GEM for the kind gesture.