By Alim Jalloh
Richard Allen High school in the East of Freetown was the proud beneficiary of an Orange sponsored health programme that saw the introduction and donation of sanitary pads to schools in the Western Area.
The company donated 100 Menstrual Hygiene Packs for School Girls at Richard Allen High School in Freetown on Friday 25th October, 2019.
Desmond Spaine is the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager for Orange Sierra Leone and disclosed to the girls and school authorities that the packs donation is consistent with a pledge made by the company in August, 2018 while President Bio was launching the Free Quality Education to provide a USD1.5 million material support to the scheme.
This was also in close collaboration with the Ministry of Basic Senior Education which enable both sides to design five (5) projects for the distribution of 10,000 menstrual hygiene packs to 100 schools across the country in five years.
Emphasis was made about the contribution of the private sector as very critical in ensuring the success of the programmes. This response by Orange to support Government on the Free Quality Education programme has kicked off well with Richard Allen High School, being the first amongst many schools to beneft.
Amongst some of the partners that graced the occasion was Anita Koroma who is the CEO of Girl Child Network Sierra Leone and Consultant Production Manager of the Menstrual Hygiene Project said girls need to manage their menstrual hygiene well.
She spurred the girls to concentrate on schooling in order to avoid early child marriage and teenage pregnancy. “The fight against teenage pregnancy is constrained by the fact that there has been a missing link in the teenage pregnancy advocacy as the advocators had failed to establish the background for their campaign around the management of menstrual cycles”, she stated and demonstrated to the kids how to use the reusable menstrual hygiene packs.
The School Management Committee applauded the move by Orange Sierra Leone and assured the company that they will monitor the girls with a view to look into their menstrual hygiene management.
Rose Hawa Bangura, an SS 3 pupil appreciated the efforts of Orange and lavished lots of praises on the company for raising awareness about breast menstrual.
