By Princess-Ekwi Ajide, Abuja
In a bid to improve the menstrual hygiene and wellbeing of young girls in Nigeria, the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) rolled out the distribution of 40,000 Kotex Sanitary Pads – a donation from U.S. multinational corporation Kimberly-Clark.
The initiative is to reach more than 6,000 adolescent girls between 10 and 19 years old in Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Edo, Kano, Lagos, Niger, and Taraba states over a six-month period,
Reports say young women and girls in Nigeria face different challenges managing their menstruation across varying socio-cultural, economic, and environmental contexts and these challenges include inadequate knowledge about proper menstruation management and lack of access to good menstrual hygiene management materials, which have far-reaching consequences.
USAID Deputy Office Director for Health, Mieko McKay, at the handover ceremony in Lagos, said, the collaboration is a great example of how USAID engages with the private sector to improve the well-being, reproductive health, and school attendance of adolescent girls.
Kimberly-Clark’s Government Relations Manager, Nigeria and East Africa, Zainab Obagun, said, they strongly believe in investments that go beyond monetary endowments to create sustainable programs that demystify stigmas that affect the girl child adding that this donation will empower more than 6,000 adolescent girls to benefit from USAID’s health interventions across Nigeria.
Since 2020, USAID has reached over 500,000 orphans and vulnerable children through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The initiative provides comprehensive social welfare services to improve family stability and resilience while Kimberly-Clark and USAID implementing partner, Association for Reproductive and Family Health, signed the agreement for the donation on January 28, 2022.