Bomba Dauda
The founder and chief ranching officer of Kamrum Integrated Farms, Mr. Rijo Shekari and his wife Mary-Anne Shekari had on Tuesday, the 28th of May 2024, donated over 2000 packs of sanitary pads to students of Government Girls College and Government Girls Secondary School, Zonkwa, at a one-day symposium organised by their company, Kamrum Integrated Farms as part of the activities to mark the World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
Delivering a lecture on the theme for the 2024 Menstrual Hygiene Day, “Together for a Period-friendly World,” the guest speaker, Dr. Priscilla Tawai explained that menstrual hygiene, especially among adolescents, is the key to a healthy reproductive system for women of all ages. In her words, “menstrual hygiene management which involves keeping the genital area clean during menstruation, changing one’s sanitary pads regularly, provision of clean toilets for students, abstinence from sexual intercourse during menstruation, not using soap, deodorants and non-cotton or tight underwears, as well as washing the genital area from top to bottom and proper disposal of used sanitary pads, among others is the key to a healthy and happy life.” She added that “most sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, and other diseases that affect the female reproductive organs can be traced to poor menstrual hygiene management. ” She, therefore, called on the government to provide schools with female students population of menstrual age with a unit that provides counselling at an early age, and deals with issues of stigma and taboos which sometimes make menstruation look like a disease. She admonished the girls to see menstruation as a thing of pride as it is the only assurance that a woman has come of age and can procreate.
Mary-Anne Shekari delivering Pad to the benefiting students
Earlier on, Mrs. Rijo Shekari, who represented both her husband and the Kamrum Integrated Farms, noted that the intervention was necessitated by the challenge women of menstrual age face all over the world. “According to data from UNICEF, over 1.8 billion people across the world menstruate every month; and 500 millions of these girls, women, transgendery men, and non-binary persons are unable to manage their menstrual cycle in a dignified, healthy way.”
“The theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day 2024 is: Together for a #PeriodFriendlyWorld-a world where the stigma and taboos surrounding menstruation are history, where everyone can access the products, period education, and period-friendly infrastructure they need; and a world where all women and girls have the right to menstruate with confidence, with dignity, and with support. At Kamrum Integrated Farms, therefore, we share in this vision very strongly, and that is why we are doing what we are doing today.”
Mary-Anne Shekari delivering speech at the event
“It is our belief that this intervention from us would lay the foundation for a more conscious and coordinated approach that will involve schools, government, the organised private sector, and the community that will address the challenges of menstrual hygiene and create a period-friendly world for women and girls in this part of the world,” she added.
She also expressed disappointment in the fact that while planning for the programme, it was difficult to come across a female gynaecologist of Southern Kaduna extraction to serve as a resource person, hence their resolve to sponsor 5 students from the two schools who will be interested in studying medicine with specialisation in gynaecology. “Let me also use this opportunity to say that while putting this program together, we sought to work with a female gynaecologist of Southern Kaduna origin. This proved quite difficult. Because of this, my husband and I set up Zanang Foundation after our daughter, Jada Zanang Shekari.”
“Zanang Foundation shall identify five girls from GGC and GGSS Zonkwa, who want to study medicine, and specialise in Gynaecology, and sponsor them for the entire duration of their undergraduate program at any federal university in Nigeria.”
The commissioner for health, Kaduna State, who was represented by the Director, Hospital Services, Dr. Gajere hailed the Kamrum Integrated Farms for the initiative, describing it as timely and examplery. The representative of the Bajju Traditional Council and wife of the Wazirin Bajju, Mrs Rhoda Anthony Didam also said that the entire Bajju nation is proud of the humanitarian gestures by the company especially the scholarship to 45 sons and daughters of Southern Kaduna who are interested in studying veterinary medicine and agriculture related courses at the University of Jos.
The principals of the two schools thanked the organisers for remembering the children and for selecting their respective schools for the initiative. The students, too, expressed their delight over the gesture and promised to put into practice all the lessons they were taught.
