Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor has called on local and international institutions, including UNFPA, to strongly consider the availability of free sanitary pads for women and girls.
She made the call during the occasion marking International Menstrual Hygiene Day which is globally observed on May 28 to break the silence around menstrual health and hygiene.
Speaking when her office, in collaboration with the Jewel Starfish Foundation, launched the Sanitary Pads Bank at four schools in Monrovia, VP Howard-Taylor lobbied these international partners to improve sanitary provisions in schools to ensure that periods would not disrupt girls’ education from participating or continuing to attend school.
The four schools according to a press release from the Office of the VP include the Haywood Mission School, Christ the King Catholic School, William V.S. Tubman High, and the Muslims congress high School.
“Being absent from school because you have your periods are also obstacles to equality between women and men. It reinforces the view that women and girls have less claim to public spaces,” the Liberian Vice President said.
The Vice President launched the initiative by donating several sets of reusable and Washable panties Pads and reused and sanitary disposal pads for girls in these targeted schools.
VP Howard-Taylor and the team demonstrated the hygienic use of the materials donated while encouraging the girls to remain free and open when experiencing this natural phenomenon.
In the demonstration on the use of the pads, particularly the reusable and washable panties pads, the Vice President told the students that the pants are a sustainable sanitary option but must be hygienically washed and dried in the sunlight.
She assured the school authorities of monthly supplies of sanitary pads through her gender officer in the office of the Vice President.
Meanwhile, authorities of the beneficiary schools have thanked the Vice President and partners for the donation terming it laudable.
