By Ralph Sesay
Sierra Leone’s leading GSM Company, Orange Sierra Leone, has aligned its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards supporting Government’s Free Quality Education program by shifting their attention to providing reproductive health services and educative talks on the responsible management of menstrual periods by school girls.
The project is one out of five projects designed by Orange Sierra Leone in collaboration with the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) to support the Free Quality Education in various areas.
The major objective of the project is to provide 10, 000 menstrual hygiene packs to 100 schools across the country over a five-year period.
For 2019, the project will donate 2,000 menstrual hygiene packs to twenty schools in the Western Area.
The roll-out started last week at the Government Technical and Vine Memorial Secondary schools, west of Freetown.
On Thursday, 31st October, 2019 it was the turn of the Murray Town Army Junior, the Constance Cummings- John and King Fahad Islamic Secondary schools.
Desmond Spaine, Head CSR, Orange Sierra Leone recounted that his company was concerned that school girls are increasingly absenting themselves from schools whenever they are experiencing their menstrual periods and that this has informed the company to design a project among four others that will support the girls during this difficult period in their schooling.
‘We have collaborated with Girl Child Network Sierra Leone who has the requisite expertise to design the hygiene menstrual packs and also conduct talks to girls around menstrual hygiene management across identified schools in Freetown,’ Desmond Spaine stated.
Abibatu Kamara, a trainer from Girl Child Network Sierra Leone while delivering a short talk to the three schools visited, started by applauding Orange Sierra Leone for the initiative and entreated the school girls to make use of the items donated to them by Orange Sierra Leone while they are undergoing their menstrual periods in schools.
She admonished them to open-up the conversation around their menstrual hygiene with their parents, school boys, teachers and friends.
According to her, the days when the issue of menstruation was taken as a taboo have long gone.
Abibatu Kamara on behalf of her organization also encouraged the boys, teachers and parents at home to support the girls while they undergo their menstrual periods.
Schools authorities at all the school visited, extolled Orange Sierra Leone for the brave initiative and noted that the issue of girls leaving schools during their periods was a concern for them as school authorities.
They hailed their intervention and assured them they will make use of the donations for their intended purposes.
Mr. Sahr Bockarie, Principal, Constance Cummings-John Junior Secondary School disclosed that his administration was spending out of the school budget every year to buy disposable hygiene packs for girls who witness their menstruations while in school, and that they were just planning to procure more pads for the second term of the school year.
They lauded Orange Sierra Leone for thinking towards this direction and praised them for their tremendous support to education, especially that of the Girl Child over the years.
Orange Sierra Leone Rolls-out Menstrual Hygiene Management to Schools
