The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)has unveiled a 26-page comic magazine focused on menstrual education and hygiene for the girl-child.
The magazine depicts challenges faced by girls in Nigeria regarding menstrual education and the stigma attached to menstruation in communities across the country.
The launch was held at the AHF office, Thursday in Abuja.
Globally, nearly two billion people menstruate, with 500 million experiencing period poverty, a situation worsened by lack of access to relatable information and accurate Sexual and Reproductive Health education.
The comic book takes readers through salient issues in menstrual health management, particularly access to accurate information, correcting misinformation at the root of stigma, and basic steps to staying healthy during periods, while also making boys and men allies in menstrual health management.
Speaking at the event, the Senior Advocacy and Marketing Manager, AHF Nigeria, Mr Steve Aborisade, said there was need to spread awareness on menstrual education among adolescents and young women to remove stigmatisation that had posed challenges to campaigns over the years.
“We reckon that the target audience for the comic magazine would find the message in it interesting and easily embrace it for their benefits and they too can help share the message accordingly,” Aborisade said.
The AHF Nigeria Country Programme Director, Dr Echey Ijezie, who presided over the launch, said efforts would be geared toward producing the magazine in many Nigerian languages to broaden the core message to the targeted audience.
“It is imperative to ensure that our target audience are reached in no distant future. We would work with the Federal Ministry of Education and explore the outreaches to use them as education and awareness tools,” Ijezie said.
Mrs Osaro Osa-Jarikre of the Child Development Department at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, who represented the Minister of Women Affairs, said the ministry would capture AHF programmes in its elaborate policy to be launched soon.
She said the ministry had found the foundation as a worthy partner in furthering the cause of the girl-child in Nigeria.
“Our ministry has resolved to carry AHF along in the various programmes we have designed for the girl-child in Nigeria, and we are also ready to offer needed support to the foundation in its quest to upgrade the Nigerian young generation,” Osa-Jarikre said.
Among those who attended the launch were the Nursing Manager, AHF, Dr Charity Awunor; State Clinical Coordinator, AHF, Dr Ugochi Ajaero; Programme Officer, Kids & Teens Relert, Abuja; representatives of Civil Society Organisations and members of the Girls Act
