ECOWAS Resident Representative Office in Liberia in collaboration with the West Africa Health Organization (WAHO) and Implementing Partner Payless Bana Innovations (Payless Pads) organizes a Training of Trainers Workshop and Awareness on Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) in four counties in Liberia.
The ECOWAS Resident Office with funding support from the West African Health Organization (WAHO) and implementing partner Payless Bana Innovations (Payless Pads) organized a Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop and awareness on Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) in rural Montserrado, Margibi, Grand Bassa and Bomi Counties from February 24th -26th, 2025.
The initiative seeks to address the issue of the high risk of adolescent girls dropping out of school due to lack of affordability and accessibility to pads. It is estimated that young girls miss up to 50 days in an academic year due to menstruation. The situation often compromises their chances of completing school and the risk is much higher in the rural communities in Liberia.
The complete 4 days TOT tour titled: “Closing the Gap in Sexual Reproductive Health and Promoting Healthy Menstrual Hygiene Practices” offered school going girls from different schools the opportunities to participate and learn how to make reusable sanitary pads.
The District Education Officers, District Health Officers and Director of Sexual Reproductive Health from the Ministry of Gender attended the training and expressed their deep gratitude to ECOWAS and WAHO for the initiative. They encouraged the girls to take advantage of the opportunity by learning these simple skills and become good ambassadors for menstrual hygiene.
H.E. Josephine Nkrumah, Resident Representative explained the importance of empowering young girls through simple but impactful interventions that enabled them to stay in school to realise their full potential as citizens of Liberia. She also stressed the positive ecological impact on the environment as regular pads were not biodegradable. This intervention therefore serves to tackle a secondary issue of environmental protection. She encouraged the young girls to be ambassadors of positive menstrual hygiene practices from the training conducted.
The second phase of this project will see the distribution of some 6000 reusable pads later in March 2025 with funding from the West Africa Health Organisation.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
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