Women’s health and hygiene has been one of the key concerns over the years across the Sierra Leone. The awareness on menstrual hygiene and usage of sanitary pads is virtually absent in rural areas. Poor menstrual hygiene can cause fungal infections, repeated infections to RTI, cervical cancer and vulnerable to infertility. Reproductive hygiene education and sexual education is not part of any education system in Sierra Leone.
The adolescent girls get information and education on menstruation from her mother and grandmother, who themselves had practiced the unhygienic behaviors for years and thus do not see any harm in the practices of using old cloths during menstruation. By creating enough awareness regarding menstrual hygiene's importance and use of sanitary pads, we try to prevent such chronic diseases from happening in the rural areas. The project intends to distribute sanitary pads to female children in the western area district Secondary Schools from JSS 1 to JSS 3. In view of generating demand and creating awareness among the targeted beneficiaries i.e. adolescent girls and women on the importance of personal hygiene and menstrual hygiene management in the marginalized communities, the project would involve many actors such as community based organizations (called CBOs) such as adolescent girls group, women’s group, Self Help Groups (SHGs) formed by the organization in previous time under several project’s interventions over the years.