We can all attest to the fact that 25 years since the adoption of the Beijing declaration, women globally have received various platforms and opportunities to thrive, grow, learn and prove our worth.
This proves that activism can never be downplayed in the fight for change.
Yet the fact still remains that, more needs to be done to make Gender Equality a normalised action.
This year’ theme on International Women’s Day is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. According to the UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, all women activists across the board need to tackle the persistent barriers against gender equality.
Today, I want us to talk about Period Poverty. When we started the period poverty campaign, a lot of people questioned the motives behind this campaign. Some asked, “What at all do you girls want again in life?” Yeah, they may be right. It looks like we always have something to demand.
But isn’t it sad that women need to demand almost everything? Even some of our needs that are expected to be our rights?
What is Period Poverty?
Period poverty is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, and handwashing facilities. Without access to proper education hygiene resources and sanitary products, girls are forced to stay home from school during their periods, most often between 4 and 10 days. In some cases, these girls face discrimination and stigma during their periods, and worst of all, no educational resources available to teach them about safety, and best sanitary hygiene practices.
Meanwhile not only do girls miss school during their periods, but millions of young girls are also avoiding extracurricular clubs after school or doing sports due to lack of available sanitary products.
How can gender equality be achieved in all aspects of life in Ghana, when we have an unimaginable number of girls in rural communities who do not have access to period products.
In Ghana, Sanitary Products are taxed as luxury products.
Like really?
My period is a luxury? Not at all.
25 years ago, we were singing songs such as “send your girl child to school”.
Today, our adolescent girls are in school but are missing classroom lessons, sports, school clubs because of period poverty. When we talk about period poverty not only do we focus on sanitary pads, but appropriate gender washrooms, hygiene educational materials and conducive learning environment for adolescent girls.
When some of these rural girls keep missing school for five days every week, some of them give up on the way. Some of these girls who try hard to learn in school, improvise by using newspapers, rags, and cement papers to help themselves during their periods.
90% of the government school washrooms in rural communities are not gendered specific. Some of these schools do not have clean running water to help the girls during their periods.
Inequalities are still present on the grounds. Young girls are not factored into government initiatives.
As today marks the International Women’s Day and we are fighting for generation equality, let’s remember that meeting the hygiene needs of the adolescent girls, is also a fundamental human right.
Menstrual issues are issues of dignity and public health.
Today, we are calling on the government of Ghana to implement the following five things.
1. Make sanitary products tax-free.
2. Sanitary Pads should be supplied freely to rural adolescent girls in Ghana.
3. In Collaboration with Ghana Education Service and Ghana Health Service, the government must provide educational materials for adolescent girls in all Basic and Senior high schools in Ghana.
4. Government of Ghana must support Ghanaian companies who are into production of sanitary pads to help them produce these items at an affordable cost.
5. Policymakers must make sure school classroom block building plans will meet the gender-specific requirement.
I wish you International Women’s Day.