Group introduces “washable” pads for rural women

A group, Health Aid For All Initiative (HAFAI) has begun a programme teaching women in rural areas of Abuja to make sanitary pads that can be washed and re-used. HAFAI began its advocacy and education programme on menstrual health hygiene to mark International Women’s Day in Pyape II, a rustic community tucked behind rising hills […]

A group, Health Aid For All Initiative (HAFAI) has begun a programme teaching women in rural areas of Abuja to make sanitary pads that can be washed and re-used.

HAFAI began its advocacy and education programme on menstrual health hygiene to mark International Women’s Day in Pyape II, a rustic community tucked behind rising hills deep inside Nyanya district of Abuja.

HAFAI founder, Dr Ugochi Ohajuruka, who is also Nigeria country director for Days for Girls International—a movement dedicated to ensure girls do not miss days of school because they are having a period—said it was targeting areas that were mostly rural, deprived of basic amenities and where women cannot get optimal hygiene for their health and well being.

“These are the kind of places where women still give birth at home, and use rags and feather to manage their menstrual [flow],” said Ohajuruka, a public health practitioner.

The outreach at Pyape II gave out free sanitary pads, but its target is that teaching women to make washable sanitary pads for themselves out of local fabrics could also become a source of income for rural women.

Grace Reuben, secretary of the women’s grouping in Pyape II, said many women themselves were turning away from using sanitary pads commercially available in drug stores and pharmacies because they are inadequate to manage flow in mostly women who have heavy menstrual flows.

“They find pieces of rags or tear their wrappers and use,” Reuben explained, because it is difficult to get fresh pad once a used one is disposed of. “You can’t reuse it, and it is costly.”

“Sometimes the pads we buy outside is not good enough. Imagine when a woman is a heavy bleeder. The pad is soaked before you know it, and you are outside. But with washable pads, even though it is soaked, and you are outside, you can easily remove it and replace it, wash and dry it.”