By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The campaign to raise awareness for menstrual hygiene among females has been intensified by Procter & Gamble (P&G).
Poor menstrual hygiene caused by a lack of education, persisting taboos and stigma, limited access to hygienic menstrual products and poor sanitation infrastructure undermines the educational opportunities, health, and overall social status of females around the world. As a result, millions of women and girls are kept from reaching their full potential.
According to UNICEF, one in 10 girls miss school for about 48 days in a year due to a lack of access to sanitary pads. In Nigeria, over 52 million women and girls experience menstruation with 70 per cent of them lacking access to sanitary pads.
To reaffirm its commitment to the improvement of menstrual hygiene management in Nigeria, P&G partnered with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the Nigerian Governor’s Wives Forum, the National Centre for Women Development as well as other non-profit organisations to educate females on the issue.
This collaboration was in commemoration of 2021 Menstrual Hygiene Day and over 8,000 Always® sanitary pads were donated to its collaborators.
“At P&G, we recognize the importance of menstrual hygiene management towards the overall health, wellbeing and education of young girls in our society.
“This is why P&G and our Always® brands have partnered with the leading NGOs and government stakeholders to celebrate the World Menstrual Hygiene Day,” the P&G Senior Director for Africa, Global Government Relations & Public Policy, Mrs Temitope Iluyemi, said.
“We hope this will increase awareness around the vital role of good menstrual hygiene management, normalize conversations about the period and menstrual health part of life and empower women and girls.
“This partnership is in line with several other sustainability programs of P&G such as the Always Keeping Girls in School (AKGIS) program and our Always School program which has trained over 1 million girls on puberty education,” she added.
In her remarks, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Pauline Tallen, noted that, “Young girls and women should not have to pause their lives because it is that time of the month.
“The importance of adequate knowledge on good menstrual hygiene practices as well as access to menstrual hygiene products cannot be overemphasised.
“Females deserve to live in dignity with their heads held high both the government and private organisations should work together to ensure that poor menstrual hygiene is a thing of the past.
“Menstrual hygiene day is particularly important as it brings this conversation to the forefront. I would also like to thank P&G for their immense contribution over the years towards improving the lives of women across Nigeria.”
On her part, Mrs Bisi Fayemi, the leader of the Nigerian Governors’ Wives Forum, stated that, “I say a very big thank you to the team at P&G for this partnership with NGWA GBV.
“I am very delighted that P&G has chosen to work with us as a collective. In the Nigeria Governor’s Wives Forum, this is a project we are all passionate about.
“We have discovered a strong link between period poverty and the issue of sexual exploitation of teenage girls. Therefore, we felt that this must be addressed both at a policy level as well as through community engagement.
“At the policy level, we are scandalized that Nigeria as a country still does not see it as important that every girl has access to sanitary protection.
“We feel that Nigeria should be way ahead of the discussion on whether sanitary products should be taxed or not. We feel that there should be zero tax on menstrual hygiene products, we believe that state governments should try as much as possible to make resources available so that we can bridge this period poverty gap.
“With the support from Procter & Gamble, we were able to celebrate menstrual hygiene day in a very significant way and we hope that this is the beginning of a very good partnership between the NGWF and P&G.”
Adedapo Adesanya 
Aduragbemi Omiyale