As part of the GNAD-AmplifyChange project on menstrual hygiene management for selected Deaf schools in Ghana, the Ghana National Association for the Deaf (GNAD) organized a one day training workshop at Jamasi School for the Deaf, in the Ashanti Region, on October 17, 2019. The objective of the program was to build the capacity of in-school adolescent girls on proper menstrual health hygiene. The training was facilitated by two senior midwives at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, in Kumasi, Mrs. Anita Baffour Gyimah and Mrs. Joana Asiawah,
Apart from the students and teachers of the school, the opening session of the program was attended by the Assistant Headmistress, the School Administrator, and a representative of the Special Education Division of the Ghana Education Service. In his opening remarks, the Administrator of the school, Mr. Kwabena Oppong, encouraged the girls to apply the knowledge acquired to avoid undue health problems that could impact negatively on their academic performance.
The lead facilitator, Mrs. Anita Baffour Gyimah cited abdominal pains, waist pains, constipation, and tiredness, diarrhoea among the health problems that tend to accompany menstruation. She urged the girls to seek medical attention when they experience any of such symptoms.
Mrs Gyimah noted that proper menstrual hygiene helps to reduce risk of Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) and urged all girls to maintain basic menstrual hygiene standards such as⁚ regular hand washing before and after changing menstrual pads, use of appropriate underwear that would make them feel comfortable, and regular washing of the body with water etc.
Furthermore, girls in their menses were advised to avoid the consumption of dairy products, red meat, fats, oily foods, sugar-rich food, and alcohol.
As part of the training, the girls were taken through demonstrative sessions on the proper change (use) of menstrual kits including sanitary pads and antiseptics.
The training session ended with an open forum which provided opportunity for the participants to ask relevant questions on menstrual health hygiene management, and received appropriate responses from the resource persons. The project was sponsored by AmplifyChange (UK) an international organization that supports Sexual and Reproductive Health in developing countries.