By SIMON NDIVE KALLA
Three Limbe based Non Governmental Organisations NGO, namely Amen Foundation, Simple Ladies Association and Hope for a better tomorrow, on Thursday, May 28, 2020 celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Awareness Day, with a unique message for young adolescent girls and women, to stay safe from infection and other health hazards related to menstruation.
Raising awareness on the significance of menstrual hygiene, at the ‘Children full of Grace’ centre in Man O’ War Bay in Limbe III Subdivision, the Amen Foundation handed over the construction of a restroom for the children worth FCFA 1 Million by the group known as Sisters of Bimbia decent based in the United States of America. The CEO of Amen Foundation, Elizabeth Monjowa said during the event that a befitting and clean toilet is very essential to menstrual hygiene.
The CEO of Simple Ladies Association, Linda Ekabe, went with the same sensitisation campaign message to the children of Alliance Orphanage in Bota, with a donation of sanitary pads and food items, to assist the teenage girls there to be in good menstrual condition.
The day was also felt by the women of Isobe Beach in Idenau, West Coast Subdivision, who were visited by the ladies of ‘Hope for a better tomorrow Foundation’, headed by CEO Eli- Anne Tembeng. She told reporters that the campaign was timely, given that girls and women of Isobe Beach were less aware of the basics of menstrual hygiene. Sanitary pads, food items and gifts were equally distributed to the women of the Beach.
According to Eli- Anne Tembeng, “We taught them how to take care of themselves during menstruation; we taught them on how to calculate their menstrual cycle, how to take care of their personal health, how to dispose of their pads and also in a situation where they don’t have a calendar or an app to help them calculate their menses, we taught them how to produce their menstrual bid to help them calculate their monthly flow”, she told the press.
She however regretted that some parents still find it difficult to talk to their daughters about their menses, reason why they are out to talk to them.