Voices of Women and Children With Disabilities in Ghana (VOWACGhana), a leading advocate for women and children with disabilities and caregivers, conducted a menstrual hygiene education programme for girls at the Cape Coast School For The Deaf and Blind on May 28, 2024.
The Ghana Health Service facilitated the event, which marked Menstrual Hygiene Day and covered reproductive health and personal hygiene. The organisation donated essential items like sanitary pads, pants, toothpaste, and soap to the girls.
The Acting Executive Director of VOWACGhana, Madam Juliana Mahmood, urged the government and civil society organisations to prioritize girls and women with disabilities during gender-based international day celebrations. She emphasized that girls with disabilities are often neglected during menstrual hygiene day celebrations, despite being the most vulnerable.
VOWACGhana joined calls to remove taxes on sanitary pad imports, to promote menstrual hygiene among women and girls with disabilities. Madam Mahmood highlighted the struggles of rural women and girls with disabilities to maintain menstrual hygiene due to high costs, forcing them to use alternative methods that pose physical and reproductive health risks.
Civil society organizations and human rights advocates, including Lawyer Francis Xavier Sosu, have criticized the Ghana Revenue Authority’s 20% import tax and 12.5% value-added tax on sanitary products. Lawyer Sosu proposes an amendment to remove the Value Added Tax on menstrual hygiene products.
Madam Juliana Mahmood urged other civil society organisations and well-meaning Ghanaians to collaborate with VOWACGhana in improving the quality of life of women and children with disabilities in the country.
Some school children shared their thoughts with DisabilityNewsGH.com, expressing how much the education on menstrual hygiene and the donation meant to them. Visually impaired Miss Rebecca Aquah, siad “although I’ve been using sanitary pads, the education on menstrual hygiene has taght me the proper way to use and dispose of them”. She expressed her heartfeld gratitude to VOWACGhana for the programme.
During the event, VOWACGhana conducted focus group discussions, facilitated by consultant Alexander Bankole William, on Ghana’s implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The discussions revealed significant shortfalls in education, accessibility, employment, healthcare, transportation, and family life. The findings, gathered from school children and women with disabilities, will be submitted to the United Nations as a situational report.
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SOURCE: DisabilityNewsGH.com