International Day of Education
January 24, 2022
Our Tech Journey
May 21, 2022
On the 8th of March, 2022, Sponsor A Child Through School Foundation (SACTS) joined the world to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The theme for this auspicious day was “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” with a slogan that also hit the nail right on the head- #breakthebias.
As a woman, and as a Nigerian, the odds stacked against us are so high that it only takes perseverance and doggedness to make something out of ourselves.
We realized that our relentless work to give more children access to education is being hindered by issues connected to women and girls due to the societal influence and traditions which draws us back to sustainable implementation of our vision.
We found that teenage girls are still experiencing period poverty – a situation where the girl child routinely misses school because they cannot afford sanitary products to use during their monthly menstrual flows. Some young girls have to indulge in sexual immorality with the male in order to get funding to purchase sanitary products for their use. This is unimaginable and it really saddened our hearts.
Another time to make lemonades out of lemons, we figured and so we collaborated with the Sanitary Pad Media Campaign (SPMC) Foundation to hold a debate on Sanitary Product Affordability for women and girls in Nigeria and Africa.
We are aware that the Nigerian government made condom distribution in secondary schools free for sexual purposes, a process totally based on choice. So we wonder why the government couldn’t do the same for sanitary products. Why do women and girls have to pay an arm and a leg for a biological process that they have no control over?
This was our focal point debate in commemoration of the 2022 IWD event held at Global Challenge High School located at Ajegunle, Lagos State with female School Teachers and Parents.
So whilst we advocate, pray and hope for a favourable result from the government of Nigeria on the Free Distribution of Sanitary Products in all secondary schools and homes/public places for girls and women, we decided to pull in all the resources we could gather. We shared sanitary pads, menstrual cups and tampons with over 80 girls and women in Ajegunle(that’s how far we could reach for now).
Other highlights of our 2022 International Women’s Day event included:
- Encouraging our girl children to see themselves as more than what the bias dictates.
- An extensive lecture about women’s personal hygiene.
- Introducing and explaining the basics of menstrual cups as the new alternative for sanitary pads.
- Sharing both sanitary pads and menstrual cups with our children.
Overall, it was a fulfilling experience for us and the participants. We are happy that for a whole 12 months (1 year), these young girls at Ajegunle will be provided relief for their menstruation and won’t be forced to miss school or indulge in any immorality.
With this came the realization that we have only just scratched the surface of the walls of period poverty and that there’s great work ahead of us.
We can’t do this alone and here’s us calling for your partnership support to sustain this initiative and enable us to reach out to many more girls in Ajegunle and other less privileged communities. We will be with you every step of the way, click here to start your giving journey.
