As part of activities marking the 2025 Adolescent Girls’ Week celebration, no fewer than thirty-two adolescent girls drawn from twenty-one Local Government Areas of Adamawa State were trained on menstrual hygiene.
This is sequel to the capacity-building training organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in partnership with the Adamawa state government during a two-day advocacy training for some adolescent girls on self-confidence and menstrual hygiene in the State.
Speaking at the occasion in Yola, the Adamawa State Team Lead, Egla Dauda, said that the adolescent girls need to be given special attention and care concerning their well-being and hygiene, noting the urgent need to create safer spaces for adolescent girls in health facilities.
Dauda explained that such spaces would allow young girls to speak freely about their health and personal challenges without fear of discrimination or stigmatisation.
According to her, “most of our health facilities lack dedicated spaces for adolescents, especially for pregnant girls who often feel judged when they try to seek help.
Dauda called on Local Government Areas to create safe spaces in their domains aimed at providing an enabling environment for adolescent girls to access care and counselling confidently.
She stressed that safe spaces guarantee confidentiality and mental safety, adding that empowerment initiatives like this can help reduce crime rates by providing meaningful engagement for young people.
The lead person, however, opined on the importance of empowering young girls with practical skills such as producing reusable sanitary pads, highlighting that the programme also focused on menstrual hygiene, creating safe spaces for adolescents, and equipping 219 nurses with skills to support adolescent girls’ physical and mental well-being in these safe spaces.
In his presentation, Oluseyi Olosunde, a Health Officer with UNICEF, explained that the SARAH project aims to strengthen policies and systems that improve access to reproductive health and rights for adolescents, women, and children.
“The main objectives of the SARAH project are to strengthen policy frameworks on reproductive and adolescent health, improve access to quality adolescent-friendly services, and promote the use of data for planning and service delivery”, Olosunde said.
To address menstrual hygiene challenges, Olosunde disclosed that UNICEF and its partners plan to empower adolescent girls in every local government area to produce reusable menstrual pads using locally available materials.
“We are targeting girls in rural areas who are often the poorest of the poor. By training and equipping them, we not only improve hygiene but also create small-scale economic opportunities,” he said.
Sunday, Stephen from the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency noted that “one-stop shop” care centres have been established in five LGAs to respond to the needs of adolescent girls, including pregnant teens aged 15 to 19, while 309 health workers have been trained to provide specialised care for adolescents.
UNICEF MNCH Health Manager, Martin Alex Dohlsen, emphasised the importance of creating a supportive environment for adolescents as they transition from childhood to adulthood.
EU SARAH Project Manager in Adamawa, Ahmed Yero, also noted that empowering adolescent girls gives them a platform to become role models and change agents within their communities.
