Mary Nnah
FAB Treasure Foundation, a champion for women’s empowerment and wellbeing, tackled menstrual health challenges head-on at the Kuchingoro IDP camp in Abuja. With support from ActionAid Nigeria, they provided reusable sanitary pads and crucial menstrual health education to over 100 women.
This was necessitated by the results of a study conducted by FAB Treasure’s programmes unit. The research revealed a harsh reality: for these displaced women, basic needs like food and clothing came first. They simply couldn’t afford sanitary products and have resorted to using other unhealthy means of managing their menstruation.
This sad reality forms the bedrock of FAB Treasure Foundation’s thematic approach to women empowerment. Having considered the importance of menstrual hygiene and the prevalence of several social and economic factors that impede women from upholding a healthy lifestyle, FAB Treasure took to a 3-day outreach tagged “Empower Her; Embracing Sustainable Solutions for Menstrual Hygiene,” at the Kuchingoro IDP Camp Abuja.
The outreach aimed to educate and encourage healthy menstrual practices, deconstruct age-long perspectives and beliefs attached to menstruation, and distribute reusable and easy-to-maintain sanitary pads, thereby reducing the burden of purchasing sanitary products monthly.
Beneficiaries of this project – women and girls alike who were taught how to use and manage the reusable sanitary products expressed gratitude and joy as they will not need to bother about purchasing sanitary pads for the next six months.
“I love this pad because it is reusable, very simple to manage, and better than the others we have received,’ Miriam Yohana said.
In tandem with Miriam’s assertion, Patience James appreciated FAB Treasure for the new knowledge and menstrual products. they have received. “Before now, I used to think, menstrual blood is dirty blood, but now I know better. I will share this with my friends,” she noted.
With a clear desire to continuously improve women’s health and empower them for change, Festus Abigail, Executive Director of FAB Treasure Foundation, has reiterated her commitment to creating a better and healthier living condition for women and girls, particularly those who are marginalised.
“Over the years, I have witnessed and heard stories of women living under terrible circumstances, the kinds where survival is the most important thing and menstrual hygiene is of little or no concern to them.
“These women opt for unhygienic options during menstruation like, clothes, wrappers, and a host of other ways to manage their menstruation. Sadly, the economy has made it difficult to get sanitary pads”, Abigail noted.
Abigail expressed her wish to continue to uphold a more accommodating environment for women and girls to freely and healthily go through their menstrual periods.
“I and my team have and will continue to do our best to see that period poverty is a thing of the past, and women are more inclined to discuss their menstruation without fear of stigmatization and sentiments,” she added.
The highlight of the Empower Her outreach was the distribution of reusable sanitary pads to women and girls. FAB Treasure’s mission is to rewrite the narrative around menstrual health by 2030. “Empower Her” is just one step in their ongoing fight to end period poverty and empower women to embrace their periods with confidence and dignity.
