HOHOE, Volta Region, Ghana – A total of 15 adolescent girls from the Volta School for the Deaf and Blind, have received training on menstrual hygiene.
The training was organised by the Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD) and AmplifyChange, a non-profit making organisation.
It was to enable the girls to manage their menses in a dignifying manner.
The girls were part of 45 beneficiaries from the Bechem, Savelugu and Hohoe who received training to enable them to become peer educators and give such training to their colleagues.
Mr Eric Sapey Jnr, Project Officer, AmplifyChange who spoke through sign language and interpreted by Mr George Pinto, a Sign Language Interpreter, noted that hearing-impaired women and girls belonged to the most marginalised population in Ghana.
He said high cost, disability and gender factors continued to affect their ability to better access quality Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) information and services and for adolescents to better manage their menstrual health due to poor targeting by Corporate Social Organisations (CSOs) and state institutions.
Mr Sapey said there was a strong justification for the project they were undertaking because, with a lack of special targeting and catch-up intervention, most hearing-impaired girls would become victims of SRH challenges including unsafe abortion.
He said the duration of the project, which was from June 2021 to July 2023, was aimed at improving SRH information and services for the hearing impaired and “Hard to Hearing” persons in Ghana.
Mr Sapey noted that the core objectives of the project were to increase access to comprehensive SRH information and service for hearing-impaired women and girls in three regions, to enhance knowledge of 1,000 adolescent girls with the ability to manage their menses in a dignifying manner.
He said it was also to encourage more deaf girls in the school to participate in academic activities and get trained in pad making and to get continuous support from the Ghana Health Service to include the needs of hearing-impaired women and girls in public SRH service.
Dr Michael Castro Cudjoe, Headmaster of the Volta School for the Deaf and Blind, Hohoe, urged the participants to be attentive to learn what they would be taught to enable them to give effective training to their colleagues.
He urged them not to be scared but ask questions about whatever might be bothering them during what they would learn.
The participants received t-shirts, bags, and pads at the end of the two-day training programme being held in Hohoe.
