Upper East Regional Manager of the Museums and Monuments Board, Prisca Nambomie Yenzie has rubbished the CEO of Inspire Today’s claim that young women in the 5 regions of the North use clay as substitute for sanitary products during menstruation.
Speaking in an interview on Breakfast News, Ms. Prisca argued that clay is not an absorbable material and therefore, cannot be used to catch menstrual flow as claimed by Rita Etornam Sey.
“Tell me, how can clay absorb? If she has seen some people (use clay in place of sanitary pad), maybe in her dreams not in reality. I cannot imagine. Even if you say it has been used to form a shape of a panty, then fine. That one is an artistic expression but you cannot even wear it. When clay is dried, it’s so hard. And when it’s soft, how are you going to use it? Clay is not even an absorbable material though it’s a malleable material but its not an absorbable material”.
She added that not even in the stone age did women in that part of the country use clay to catch menstrual flow, describing the claim as preposterous.
Ms. Prisca, who believes Ms. Etornam is only fabricating stories to gain donor support, challenged her to prove her claim.
“If she needs support, she should better find another place but the Northern part of Ghana today, we are more enlightened and (would not) just sit and watch anyone who does not understand anything about his or her presentation. I was surprised she didn’t come out with photos to demonstrate where she saw it and how it looks like on the individual”.
In a series of media interviews ahead of this year’s World Menstrual Hygiene Day, CEO of Inspire Today, Rita Etornam Sey claimed that young women in Northern Ghana use clay as substitute for sanitary pad to catch menstrual flow.
Ms. Etornam Sey, who donated sanitary products to some schoolgirls in the Upper East Region, added that she found out about this when she visited that part of the country as part of her outfit’s outreach activities.
But the comment by the Inspire Today CEO sparked outrage among indigenes of the North.
Some of them, who took to social media to register their displeasure, called her out for what they say are lies she peddled about the area.
They said such a practice does not exist anywhere in the North but is only fabrication by Ms. Etornam to win donor support.
They demanded that she proves her claim or apologises for denigrating them.
They also took on the media outlets, which granted her the interviews, for allowing her to make such utterances on their platforms without any prove.
TV3 Network, one of the media outlets, on which platforms she made the claim, has since apologised and distanced itself from the said comment.
