Our Lady of Mercy Community Services (OLAM), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), in Kassena-Nankana Municipality has reiterated the need for government to subsidize the cost of sanitary pads to make them affordable for vulnerable school girls in the country.

Emmanuel Atiiga, the Executive Director of the NGO, said this research had confirmed that girls absenting from school and teenage pregnancies in SHSs and JHSs were attributed to the inability of the girls to afford sanitary pads during their menstrual periods.

The Executive Director made the call when his outfit donated 480 sanitary pads and other items including detergents, cooking oil, rice, and assorted drinks among others to over 200 female students of the Mirigu Senior High School in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality as part of this year’s African Union Day (AU).

Atiiga explained that the gesture formed part of OLAM’s outreach programmer to educate female students on Sexual Health Reproductive issues, with resource persons from the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The Executive Director told the students that there were future leaders and entreated each of them to set up a vision and to work hard towards achieving that vision.

Atiiga lamented the spate of teenage pregnancy among young school girls and said it was becoming alarming nationwide and there was a need for appropriate interventions to stop the canker,

He said his outfit had been supporting other second-cycle schools in the municipality and its environs with funding support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA -SENEGAL), VASTENACTIE, and L’Oreal.

Anastasia Musah, the Assembly member of the Atosale-Azaasi Electoral Area and a member of the Kaana Manga Women Association, admonished female students to stay away from premarital sex and to concentrate on their studies

Florence Ernestina Bobi, a retired education director and the President of the Kaana Manga Women Association, educated the female students on problems associated with teenage pregnancy and urged them to avoid friends who might influence them to engage in premarital sex.

She said even though the growth in their bodies came with a strong sexual urge, it was proper for them to control such desires and remain disciplined until they were mature enough to marry.

Matilda Yelbaya, a public health Nurse from the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Health Directorate, called on parents to build cordial relationships with their children particularly the female ones, so that they could discuss sexual reproductive issues with them.

She also urged parents to provide the needs of their teenage female children to prevent them from falling prey to unscrupulous men, who will capitalize on the provision of their needs and lure them into sexual relationships.

The occasion which was on the theme, “Mentoring and Distribution of Sanitary Pads,” paved the way for the Kana Manga Women Association, a subsidiary of (OLAM) to give talks on career counseling, Personal Hygiene, and Teenage Pregnancy.

Mahama Braimah, the Senior House Master, who received the items on behalf of the school thanked the NGO for the support and said it would improve the academic standard of the school and urged others to follow suit.