A former presidential candidate of the People’s National Convention (PNC) and Gynecologist, Edward Nasigiri has said government’s plan to distribute free sanitary pads to girls in Senior High Schools (SHS) will only lead to corruption.
“Even though the intentions of the promoters of the project may be good, there will be a lot of abuses and the money may end up not doing what they intended it to do,” Mr Nasigri said.
Government on Wednesday approved a 156 million dollar loan facility from the World Bank to finance the Ghana Secondary School Education Improvement Project.
The loan will be used to provide scholarship for students in deprived communities, fund the construction of Senior High Schools and provide free sanitary pads to young girls at the SHS level.
The decision to distribute free sanitary pads has however generated public outcry as some believe the project will pave way for government to embezzle more funds.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Nasigri said individuals contracted to supply the sanitary pads to the various schools might end up selling them instead of distributing them.
Another challenge associated with the project, he said, is its sustainability.
Mr. Nasigri believes that it would have been more profitable for government to invest part of the loan facility in health and sex education respectively rather than providing sanitary pads.
Speaking on the same platform, a Public Health Practitioner, Maame Yaa Bomsomtwe proposed a cheaper alternative to government’s policy to hand out free sanitary pads to young ladies.
She proposed that government secures menstrual cups instead of sanitary pads as a cost effective means of ensuring menstrual hygiene.
According to her, the menstrual cups are “economical, hygienic and environmentally sound” as compared to the sanitary pads.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah