Girls With Period Initiative Targets 10,000 Girls for free Sanitary Items

An initiative,Girls With Period, GWP, says it is targeting a total of 10,000 underprivileged girls nationwide to benefit from its free sanitary items for their menstrual hygiene.

The founder of the initiative, Patricia Okopi disclosed this in Akure, over the weekend, during an outreach to gather sanitary pads and other items from donors so as to achieve the target.

Okopi who led other members of the Initiative across major streets in the Ondo state capital said about 48 percent of the target had been met across the country.

She said “This year, we intend to reach out to 10,000 girls nationwide and as of September,we have reached out to 4,500 girls. We will reach out to 2,000 girls in Kano state in October.”

Okopi explained that Girls With Period, GWP, is an initiative that educates teenage girls, especially the underprivileged ones about menstrual hygiene, sex education,self esteem and importance of formal education.

According to her, the initiative started in October ,2018 and have been able to reach out to 5000 girls across ten states in Nigeria and in Liberia.

“The essence of this outreach is to educate people that there are some other people that are menstruating but can not afford to take care of themselves because they don’t have needed items.

Patricia Okopi

What Girls With Period does is to go to rural areas, go to places where there are underprivileged girls and distribute free gifts to them ,containing pads, soaps, and underwear among others.

In Africa ,menstrual hygiene has been a very big challenge, especially, a lot of girls and ladies in rural areas can not afford to get those things to take care of themselves during their periods. In fact,many urban dwellers can not afford to buy sanitary pads.

They make use of rags and it is prone to diseases.

There is also a challenge of menstruation myths in the country and its unfortunate because menstruation is unavoidable for the female.

The feedback we get and supports have been great. A lot of referrers and i feel so fulfilled doing this.

We are also embarking on this outreach to collect sanitary materials from donors so as to distribute to beneficiaries across the country against Girl Child Day coming up on 11th of November.

Government is not supportive but people in the private sectors have been wonderful.”

She advised parents to be more sensitive to addressing issues around their female children, especially their hygiene.

“To parents that have female children, you should watch your girls closely. Don’t make them feel ashamed to talk to you about periods.

Ask them questions and educate them on what they need to know.

There are lot of girls that don’t have anyone to speak to them and if you have any opportunity, you can pad other girls in need.”

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