The Hope for Communities and Children Initiative (H4CC), an NGO, has distributed 150 dignity kits to vulnerable adolescent girls in Kaduna.
The Executive Director of the NGO, Mr Hadiza Umar, disclosed this in an interview in Kaduna on Wednesday.
Umar explained that the dignity kits donated by the United Nations Population Funds contained a wrapping cloth, towel, bucket, mat, hijab, reusable sanitary pad, body cream, shaving stick and a whistle.
She said that the kits were distributed to 50 girls each in Kauru, Makarfi and Kaduna North Local Government areas of the state to contribute to the specific sanitary and hygiene needs of vulnerable girls.
She said that the kits were distributed after a Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) sensitisation for adolescent girls at primary healthcare centres in the respective LGAs.
“The sensitisation was for the girls to understand their body and their reproductive rights and what puts them at risk of gender-based violence.
“It is also to help them to protect themselves from unwanted sexual relations, maintain a good menstrual hygiene and adopt healthy behaviours to live a quality life.
“To do this, we had to go through the Kaduna State Primary Healthcare Development Board, so that we can link the adolescent girls to healthcare centres in their communities to increase demand for SRH services,” she said.
The donations were part of UNFPA’s series of Risk Communications and Community Engagement (RCCE) activities under the United Nations support to the national COVID-19 multi-sectoral pandemic response.
The RCCE initiative is aimed at ensuring that risk and impact of gender-based violence and interconnecting sexual and reproductive health consequences are mitigated.