This year’s Menstrual hygiene day involved a two -day engagement with the Government of Ghana, UNICEF, Korea International Cooperation (KOICA), Global Affairs Canada and the French Embassy.
The theme for the celebration, “It’s Time for Action”, called for stakeholders to act on menstrual hygiene management to ensure girls have access to information, have clean toilets to stay in school during menstruation.
The event for 28th May involved the participation of children, young people and adults and was emceed by renowned journalist, Israel Laryea and Victoria Quaynor, a youth advocate with Curious Minds and UNICEF. The programme involved speeches, poetry recitals by students, sketch, showing of video animations and a pledging moment. Students from Kinbu Senior High School, Dzorwulu Special School and St. Mary’s Girls Basic School attended attended the celebration. The event hosted over 200 people of which about 100 were school children.
The event for 28th May involved
the participation of children, young people and adults and was emceed by
renowned journalist, Israel Laryea and Victoria Quaynor, a youth advocate with
Curious Minds and UNICEF. The programme involved speeches, poetry recitals by
students, sketch, showing of video animations and a pledging moment. Students from Kinbu Senior High School, Dzorwulu Special School
and St. Mary’s Girls Basic School attended attended the celebration. The event
hosted over 200 people of which about 100 were school children.
A panel discussion which was led by young people shed light on some key issues around menstruation. Young ladies on the panel shared their first experiences with menstruation, access to information around menstruation, the myths, private clean toilets, the types of materials available for girls and women and the 20% import tax on sanitary pads. A U-Report champion in addition to two students from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science of Technology (KNUST) who have developed sanitary pad from banana stem, joined three government and CSO partners for this discussion.
The following day, UNICEF and partners sought to have a relaxed evening programme which took the chance to engage and inspire adolescent girls to be proactive in finding solutions to issues that affects them. The theme, for the evening’s event was‘#TimeforActionGhana,
It began with an Oscar-winning short film ‘Period. End of Sentence.’ This was followed by a conversation around the myths of menstruation, involving men and boys as stakeholders in menstruation hygiene management, the materials available for girls to use during menstruation and the myths around the topic. Two students, Emily Otoo-Quayson and Matilda Sampong from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, were invited to share their story on how they came to develop sanitary pads out of banana stem (fiber).
This event attracted about 100 people. It
was moderated by Shamima Muslim Alhassan, a Journalist. The audience was made
up of Senior High school students and Tertiary school students. A pledging and
photo opportunity session concluded the event.
