The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, has given a nod to the establishment of a pad bank in the ministry to meet the hygiene and menstrual needs of women in the workplace.
The minister revealed this when he received members of the technical working group on Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management (MHHM) in Nigeria under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, who paid a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja.
The minister said despite challenges in terms of hormonal imbalances and different mental reactions, men must always show support understanding in helping out their women.
Earlier, the health desk officer, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs. Marian Shaibu, stated that the ministry is committed to stepping down intervention programmes on menstrual health and hygiene management at all levels of government in Nigeria, by leveraging on partnership and support to meet the hygiene needs of women by unveiling ‘pad banks’ in workplaces to enable women maintain menstrual hygiene while at the workplace.
She explained that the ‘pad bank’ is a simple, glass-covered, office cabinet that contains all types of pads, both disposables and reusable, tampons, ‘cups’, soaps, disinfectant, towels, underwear, clips hanger, sanitisers, pain relievers etc., can be placed in strategic places in the ministry, where staff can access it whenever they experience ‘flow’ while at work.
The technical working group on Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management (MHHM) in Nigeria is drawn from the ministries of education, water resources and women’s affairs, as well as the Tabitha Cumi Foundation, a non-governmental organisation.
In a separate event, the minister also received on a courtesy call, a delegation from His Royal Highness, Oba Ayodele Irukera, the Ajamoto 11 and chairman, Yagba West Traditional Council, and Elegbe of Egbe ably represented by Prof. Olatunde Ajagbonna. The delegation came on a mission via a special request by the monarch for the establishment of a veterinary hospital in Egbe, Kogi, for the peculiarity of the community situated as a cattle route border town between Kogi and Kwara.
He informed the minister that Elegbe in council has already donated a plot of land with three bedrooms situated on a strategic cattle route in Egbe to the ministry, adding that the community will appreciate a one-stop health hospital concept for humans and livestock, to bring about some balance.
