Happy Menstrual Hygiene Day 2022 - Making Menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030. By Sofonie Dala

 This year's theme is: Making Menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030

To create awareness about menstruation, provide safe and hygienic practices to girls, and burst the bubble of taboo, World Menstrual Hygiene Day is celebrated on May 28 all over the world. 

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Today, millions of women and girls* around the world are stigmatised, excluded and discriminated against simply because they menstruate.

We advocate for behavioural change to reduce earth vulnerability to climate change and global warming from disposable sanitary pads. Work on women liberation against harmful restrictions surrounding  menstruation. 

We mobilise women to switch back to the use of reusable sanitary pads and napkins than disposable sanitary pads that have local ecosystem vulnerable to climate change and global warming.

According to UNFPA, May 28 signifies the menstrual cycle of females. As a fertility cycle lasts for 28 days, the date is selected to be 28. In the same way, an average period lasts for five days, which gives us the fifth month of the day, May. Therefore, to give it a meaning in itself, May 28 is celebrated to mark the change that occurs in a female body.

*We believe that  girls are also powerful agents of change.We work all year round to:

- Break the taboos and end the stigma surrounding menstruation,

- Raise awareness about the challenges regarding access to menstrual products,

- Mobilise the funding required for action at scale.

I Won’t Recognize Any Naked Person In This House Again – Bagbin Tells MPs

 Mr Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, has directed Majority and Minority Whips to maintain order and discipline in the House with emphasis on the dress code of some Members of Parliament (MP).

According to the speaker, some MPs dress inappropriately in the House. “What I see you wearing are singlets, and when you wear a singlet to the house, you are naked. I have seen it and that makes you not catch the attention of the speaker…I will not recognize any naked person in this house again, you will be seen as strangers,” he said on the floor of Parliament.

He has therefore charged leaders, especially the Whips of the house to maintain discipline and order since that was their area of focus.

“With this, the house stands adjourned to tomorrow at 10 o’clock in the forenoon…the house is adjourned,” Mr Bagbin said.

The Speaker on the resumption of the first meeting of the second session of the 8th Parliament, Tuesday 25 January 2022 ditched his ceremonial outfit for a traditional attire for sittings in the House.

He was clad in a kente cloth over a white lace shirt and a crown as he presided over the sitting.

His outfit resembled the costume Ewe chiefs wear at key traditional functions.

Before the resumption, Mr Bagbin indicated that he would only be using the Speaker’s cloak for ceremonial occasions this year, as part of efforts to change the dress code of members of the House.

Social media went agog over the Speaker’s new look.

Source: GNA

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Nigerian lawyer wins prestigious environmental prize

 Nigerian lawyer Chima Williams is one of the winners of this year’s prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.

The seven recipients of the 2022 award come from across the world and are being honoured for taking “extraordinary measures to protect our planet”.

After two oil spills in Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta region in 2004 and 2005, Mr Williams worked with two local communities to hold Royal Dutch Shell accountable for the widespread environmental damage caused by its Nigerian subsidiary.

The Goldman Environmental Foundation says he knew how difficult it would be to hold oil companies accountable in the Nigerian court system, so in 2008 he helped the victims seek justice in The Hague by partnering with Friends of the Earth Netherlands to bring a case.

The farmers and fishermen wanted payment for lost income due to contaminated land and waterways and demanded that pipeline maintenance be improved.

It has been a long court battle, but in January this year a court of appeal ruled that Royal Dutch Shell ultimately had oversight and control over its subsidiary’s operations to the point that it had a duty to prevent oil spills.

The ruling means that Goi and Oruma farmers are owed compensation for the oil spills, with amounts yet to be determined, the Goldman Environmental Foundation says.

“While the many challenges before us can feel daunting, and at times make us lose faith, these seven leaders give us a reason for hope and remind us what can be accomplished in the face of adversity,” said Jennifer Goldman Wallis, the foundation’s vice-president.

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Mothers Confront Horror After 11 Babies Die In Senegal Hospital Fire

 Diali Kaba’s mother woke her up on Thursday morning with terrifying news: there had been a fire at the hospital in their town in Senegal where Kaba’s two-week-old daughter was being cared for, and 11 babies were dead.

The two women rushed to the hospital together and Kaba was allowed in to find out if her child was among the victims, while her mother Ndeye Absa Gueye waited anxiously outside.

Gueye said she heard about the fire at the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital on Wednesday night but did not immediately realise it had taken place inside the neonatal department. The news reached her early on Thursday, striking terror into her heart.

“I have my grand-daughter here, she has been here for two weeks. I have come to see if she is one of them,” she said.

A few minutes later, Kaba emerged in tears. Her baby was among the dead. The two women embraced, both weeping, until Kaba was helped into a car and driven home to grieve.

Tivaouane, located about 120 km (75 miles) east of Senegal’s capital Dakar, is a busy road transport hub and holy city that regularly attracts large numbers of Muslim pilgrims from all over the west African country.

The city was slowly waking up to the shocking news of the 11 baby deaths, which was confirmed late on Wednesday night by President Macky Sall. read more

“We all share this pain,” said local resident Ousmane Kane. “They (the mothers) suffered with the hope that their babies would live. But we have to accept the will of Allah. He gave them babies and took them back. The whole of Senegal is in mourning.”

Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr told private Senegalese TV station TFM that preliminary investigations suggested a short-circuit had caused the fire. Authorities provided no other details about how the disaster unfolded.

Public health experts have repeatedly warned that many underfunded, understaffed African hospitals had been stretched beyond their capacities by the COVID pandemic, leaving them unable to maintain acceptable safety standards.

The tragedy in Tivaouane comes after several other incidents at Senegalese hospitals angered the nation.

In April, a woman died in labour along with her unborn baby after hospital staff refused to perform a Caesarean section.

Last year, four newborn babies were killed by a fire at a hospital in the northern town of Linguere, causing a national outcry.

Source: REUTERS

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