Menstrual Hygiene Day
The World Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed globally every 28th of May because the average interval of a menstrual cycle is 28 days and the cycle continues for about five days a month. Since May is the 5th month of the year, it was chosen.
Dehat Ability Support Initiative (D-Ability Initiative) partnered with the Centre for Creative Development Strategies to observe the World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2022, and to launch the Sustainable menstrual hygiene project. D-Ability Initiative ensured that women with Disabilities were invited, cared for, and made to participate actively in this event. The event received goodwill messages from different organizations, including D-Ability Initiative, represented by a team of Deaf and Hard of Hearing women, an interpreter, and the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. The President, Dr. Kingdom Nwanyanwu, D-Ability Initiative, and other partner organizations carried out a campaign promoting the importance of menstrual justice.
Group Photo
The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer thanked the audience for identifying with women and to show support for women regarding their menstrual hygiene. He emphasized that D-Ability Initiative is at the forefront of supporting girls and women who have challenges that may hinder their ability to take advantage of different opportunities. He sighted that the Organization is currently undertaking a project that is aimed at improving the livelihood outcomes of Deaf women and Girls in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State by building their skills and earning capacity in the fashion industry.
He noted that some of the trainees are participating in the menstrual hygiene day with support from a sign language interpreter who is interpreting the activities of the event to them. One of the Deaf women (Mrs. Marvis Alam Igiri) shared her experience with participants at the event on the challenges she faced when she started seeing her menstruation at the age of 14, but that she is poised to educate her children and other Deaf girls about menstrual hygiene from the lessons she has learned.
Other stakeholder called on Government and international partners to ensure that just as condom is being given free to men/boys, sanitary pads should be given to girls & women for free. The representative from the Ministry of Women Affairs emphasized the need for government at all levels to ensure that they always provide free sanitary pads at schools and public centers. A panel of discussants talked about the role of stakeholders in promoting menstrual hygiene. They urged Educational institutions to be at the forefront of educating the girl child on the need to maintain menstrual hygiene, and to ensure that stigma from the male students is mitigated.
management alongside other CSOs partners in Rivers State. The three days training program held at Novotel Hotel, Port-Harcourt was part of the capacity strengthening programme for selected organizations in Rivers State. The intensive training was facilitated by Mrs. Folake Okonubi who took the participants through several modules as designed for the training. It was interesting, impactful, and all-inclusive as she never shifted focus on Human Resources with the introduction of each module demonstrating expertise in the field.
This high-profile feedback workshop was for Executive Directors only. D-Ability Initiative and other selected CSOs together with the officials of the European Union (EU), British Council, and Agents for Citizens-Driving Transformation (ACT) held a feedback session on the EU-ACT series of programmes in Rivers State. The feedback session summarized the months-long organizational capacity development program and heard from participants about the success of programmes so far. It also created an avenue for the Executive Directors to suggest possible ways of making the training better, more productive, interactive, and generally more conducive. This was necessary, as the CSO leaders understand their operational terrain and hence could suggest what would work best. The EU-ACT team from Abuja joined the Rivers State Focal person, Temple Oraeki in the feedback session. The EU-ACT delegation used the opportunity to announce the commencement of phase two of the program which focuses on strengthening the regulatory framework so that civil society organisations can operate in a friendly regulatory environment while staying compliant with the requirements of concerned regulatory bodies such as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), State Revenue Services, among others. Dr. Nwanyanwu the Executive Director of D-Ability initiative represented the Organization, along with the Executive Directors of other selected EU partner CSOs.