By Ralph Sesay
Orange Sierra Leone as part of its USD 1.5 million dollars commitment to President Bio’s Free Quality Education flag ship project has commenced the distribution of menstrual hygiene packs to the Government Technical and Vine Memorial Secondary Schools in Freetown.
Head of CSR, Orange Sierra Leone, Desmond Spaine, while distributing the items, noted that in August, 2018 while President Bio was launching the Free Quality Education Scheme, Orange Sierra Leone committed USD1.5 million dollars material support to the scheme in a period of five years.
According to him, Orange Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education had designed five projects in line with the pledged USD 1.5 Million dollars, and that the distribution of the menstrual hygiene packs was just one of the five projects.
He noted that they at Orange were hugely concerned about the menstrual hygiene of girls in schools and hence they consulted the services of Girl Child Network Sierra Leone who have produced the packs and are also giving sensitization talks to schools on the direct relationship between menstrual hygiene and teenage pregnancy.
Madam Anita Koroma, Chief Executive Officer and founder Girl Child Network Sierra Leone, lauded the initiative from Orange and emphasized that the issue of menstrual hygiene management was very pivotal towards addressing teenage pregnancy and other related issues.
She urged the girls to responsibly use the hygiene packs for their intended purposes and, according to her, times are gone when the issue of menstruation was a no go area for the girl child and boys.
She called on boys to support girls during their menstrual period, noting that the issue of menstruation was keeping girls out of schools for a whole week.
At the Vine Memorial Girls Secondary School, members of the Female Parliamentary Caucus witnessed the ceremony to lend their support to Orange Sierra Leone for coming to the aid of girls going through their menstruation period.
Haffie Haffner, Head of Legal Affairs, Orange Sierra Leone in her keynote statement, noted that the provision of two thousand (2,000) hygiene packs to twenty schools in the Western Area for 2019, is the start of a project which will see the distribution of 10,000 hygiene packs for a period of five years to 100 schools.
She lauded the girls to concentrate on their education. She also recounted that the provision of hygiene packs was just one of five projects Orange Sierra Leone will be rolling out in support of school children and teachers in five years.
Haffie Haffner spoke on the other projects which, according to her, include super coding for schools; Open Classroom for Teachers, provison of solar packs for village schools and the building of five laboratories for schools that will win the inter secondary school quiz competition.
All of these projects, she noted, will be implemented in a periods of five years and they are all geared towards supporting the President’s Free Quality Education flagship project.
She concluded by noting that all over the world, governments cannot do it alone.
The private sector she recounted is pivotal to support government projects and this, according to her, is what Orange Sierra Leone was demonstrating.
Veronica Kadie Sesay, President of the Parliamentary Female Caucus, encouraged the girls to keep off from sex and concentrate on their education.
She noted that they as female parliamentarians are ready to support their continuous growth and empowerment.
The climax of the ceremonies was the presentation of the hygiene packs to the principals of Government Technical Secondary School and Vine Memorial Senior Secondary Schools respectively.
Both principals lauded the efforts by Orange Sierra Leone and assured that they will do all within their power to ensure that they support the Girl Child while they go through their menstrual periods in Schools.
Orange says they are targeting eighteen (18) schools in the next one week and it is expected that a total of 1,800 hygiene menstrual packs will be distributed.