WSSCC calls for global action on girls’ hygiene
NAN-AE-7
Hygiene
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, March 9, 2017 (NAN)The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) has called for global action to tackle challenges facing girls in public places in their efforts to manage menstrual hygiene.
Dr Chris Williams, the Executive Director of WSSCC, said in a statement on Thursday that women and girls in Central and West Africa lacked access to clean water, private spaces for managing their menstruation.
He called on countries in the two regions to provide critical information on socio-cultural taboos on menstrual hygiene.
He said that this would aid efforts to tackle the consequences associated with the taboos.
“Few people talk about how menstruation can be managed with dignity and safety.
“As a result, women and girls often choose to limit their cultural, educational, social and economic activities while menstruating; missing school, work and play.
“Member states must break this silence; articulating menstrual needs in policies, budgets, programmes and monitoring systems,’’ he said.
Williams called on the global community to empower women and girls by guaranteeing safe menstrual hygiene management.
He said that menstruation was an indicator of female health and vitality, adding that sexual and reproductive health advocacies and programmes must ensure knowledge, safe conditions and dignity.
Williams said there was also the need for the citizens, media, schools and colleges, health practitioners and parents to talk about menstruation management in order to replace shame with pride.
“Safe spaces for changing, cleaning and washing and drying at home, school, the market and workplace must be ensured for women and girls everywhere.
“This means changing the design, construction and maintenance of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities to serve a human lifecycle by age, gender and physical ability.
“Half of humanity is female. Women and girls menstruate, as this enables them to have babies and reproduce humanity itself; the silence, taboos, and stigma linked to menstruation violate a host of human rights.
“It is time for the global community to break its silence on menstruation so that women and girls can discuss the topic without fear and get the information they need about their natural, physical cycle,’’ he said.
Williams said that the government at all levels could introduce policies that would ensure that girls and women had separate or private toilet facilities in schools and at workplace.
He said that such access could also include availability of essential products like cloths, pads and menstrual cups, as well as the means to dispose of and clean them properly.
Williams said that national and community leaders must speak out to change the people’s attitudes and customs which inhibited menstruating women and girls from achieving their full potential.
Besides, the executive director called on all stakeholders to promote sanitation and hygiene issues, saying that they were the drivers of health, social and economic development around the world.
“An environment that lacks sanitation and clean water is an environment where achieving other development goals is an impossible dream; the time to act is now,’’ he added. (NAN)
TAK/JEY/OOK
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Edited by Johnson Eyiangho and Dayo Komolafe