Girls should speak out in schools, manage their menstrual circle well–Asheley         

Can we meet you?

My name is Lori Ashley, the founder of Pad up Africa.

Can you tell us about the production of reusable sanitary pads for inmates and Ex-inmates?

Okay the reusable sanitary pads came up as a test mobility development levels for us to reach out to more people at a longer period of time. Having distributed 15,000 sanitary pads, we noticed that we have to go back to each one of these girls and women because they menstruate every month. So what we did was to initiate a project called community  bleeds where we teach women how to make reusable sanitary pads the materials used for this are local stuffs, so that was how we were able to get to the inmates. We are in partnership with the correctional center and we also taught 37 inmates how to make reusable sanitary pads and now three of them are selling these pads to make ends meet. To us, it is a great ventures and more sustainable and we have four packs for these reusable sanitary pads. In a pack it can be used for more than one year if properly sanitised and managed. We also go into communities and sensitise girls and women on how to manage their reusable sanitary pads, you have to wash it just the same way you wash your underwear and sun it.  If sun dries it, it kills the micro bacteria that we cannot see; you can disinfect it with any disinfectant or disinfects it with salt and hot water.

So this has been very productive, in the rural areas and communities now, we do not distribute sanitary pads to communities that we have access to water to manage it, if you do not have water then the idea of hygiene and test mobility are refuted.  We also go into communities not only to distribute reusable sanitary pads and other hygiene kits, we  sensitise them on period management and the stigma and needs of not being able to enter religions places or practice some religious rights because you are on your period.  Some people have seen it as unclean because they are going through this menstrual circle which is supposed to be a natural phenomenon. To us as pad up Africa, it cuts across social amenities in communities like good toilet facilities, running tap water, education for the girl child, also we are surrounded with the need to want to help a girl child in her confidence to be able to achieve her goals as girl and when she becomes a woman she can relate it to another girl, so to us as pad up Africa it is growth in the right sense.

How is your NGO a menstrual senitization initiative?  

It is a menstrual sensitization initiative, like I said; it was born out of passion. Menstruations has always been a terrible period for me, coming from a very poor back ground where I and my parents couldn’t afford pads and I used a lot of tissues paper that fall out in schools. I got pains; I had a bad menstrual period. I could remember walking around the streets and I saw four girls having newspaper with blood all over and I came to them and asked what happened, thinking that somebody had injured herself; one of them mentioned she was managing her pad. I wondered what her pad was, she showed me the newspaper, you know the newspaper that they use to cover book, that was what they used as sanitary pads, so it touched me and I took them to buy the sanitary pads, and they were happy and I took them back to school. At the moment, and they love to enter my car, I told them you don’t know me from anywhere but just mentioned that I am going to provide with sanitary pads and you followed me I could be evil, I could run away with these girls, that is how important the sanitary pads is. That was what brought this passion for me, so by making it a menstrual initiatives, it is just a girl child development and part of the girl child is menstruations, it can be taken care of if she can know what to do, what to wear, how to walk and how to act during this period, and I think it has a lot to do with her development and she will have the freedom to reach her potential.

How do you sensitise adolescent girls in schools about menstrual hygiene

We go into schools, we categorise them from age 9, we have the 12 years old, 13-18 years and above depending on how the kids are, we put them together in numbers, we talk to them about menstruations and listen to their stories. We also sensitise them on how to maintain a good menstrual hygiene. Still on hygiene, we tell them that their mental health needs to be checked because most of them will get angry and will not want to come to school. We were caught up with one who said she loves to get pregnant, that immediately she has a baby the menstruations goes up, we teach them on how to maintain reusable sanitary pads, how to ensure that they stay healthy after the menstruations.  We also involve the administrators of the schools, we also involve their parents because we go into the communities we talk to the women. We have a situation whereby the parents tell their children that sanitary pads is an havoc to them, just because they cannot afford it, we go back to these people  and tell them not to discourage them and we provide them with sanitary pads for their children.

Can you tell us about your Pad up Creations?

Pad up Africa have created clubs in 13 secondary schools, eight here in Abuja, two in Niger state, two in keffi and one in Lagos state. We have adult girls club we teach them Hygiene club twice in a month we engage gynecologist to speak with them in schools and in communities. The creations of these clubs is to get a feedback,  it is our monetary and evaluation towards what we have done both in communities and in schools here in Abuja when the pads are finished they call us to refill it and we ensure a girl in the pad up club monitors the pad. Also, we make sure it gets to girls that needs the pads, we have the pad up bank, we have the pad up club, we also partner with organizations that make sanitary reusable sanitary pads they give us a particular price so that we can give to the girls that are older that are able to manage it. We have created an empowerment programmes for the women and we train them on how to make reusable sanitary pads and sell them, we tell them to market them when they need us to talk to their people in their communities, we go down to the communities and sensitise the women and girls and they need to buy these products from them. In pad up Africa, we have hygiene club, we have the pad up bank, and these are the things we have created in pad up Africa.

What is your focus?

Our focus is to ensure that every adolescent child stays in schools and gets her education and becomes useful to the family and society. So we decided that we will do what we can, through the help of God, the society, organizations and government, every girl will get to her potentials.

What is driving your passion?

Is a smile on the girl child’s face, and when I hand over a pack of pad to her, menstruations should not be a clause.

Who are your sponsors?                               

We have been getting collaborations but do not have a particular sponsor, we have not gotten grants yet, we have been writing and trying to solicit for it, we have not gotten any particular sponsor yet.

Any support from the government?

Not yet but we are waiting for collaborations.

Can you tell us about your real engagement in the programmes

I encourage the girls to tread more in schools speak out and manage their menstrual circle, my engagement is on the mental health of the girls and menstrual circle her safety her education and mentoring.

Can you tell us about your Programmes for International Day of the girl child?

The international Day of the girl child is a program for confident teaching, sex education mentorship and distribution of reusable sanitary pads, the international Day of the girl child, for us is a very big day where we have impact on more than 3000 girls across Nigeria. We collaborate with other organizations that does the same thing with us, we talk to the girls in numbers, we talk to them on how they are going to defend themselves on how they can protect themselves, we speak to them on confidence, we listen to their own side of the story, we also involve their parents to listen to them, we also follow up with their education, that day we check on their academic performance.

What is Pad Up Africa Menstrual Sensitization initiative all about?

Pad up Africa is about sensitizating the adolescents girls and how to manage her menstrual circle, providing her menstrual Hygiene products educating her on the need to have good menstrual Hygiene practices and also educating her on the need to stay in schools and becomes whatever she wants to become, boosting her confidence to be able to speak out as a girl child showing that her.

Can you tell us why girls, women must use sanitary pads?

We advise them to use sanitary pads because it keeps them clean so they do not get stained.