"THE GIRLS USE RAGS, WE DISTRIBUTED PADS AND PANTS". EZINNE, A PHARMACIST:(INTERVIEW). INSPIRING WOMEN SERIES..

The goal: To leave the world better than we met it!

Using NYSC and the CDS platform, we see a story of sacrificial and selfless service to humanity.
Ezinne is living her future, now.
Putting joy in the hearts of young people and smiles on their faces,
We see how she bravely tackles the sexual and reproductive health challenges facing girls in the Northern part of Nigeria.
We too can put our passion to work just like Ezinne!




CAN WE KNOW YOU?
My name is Ezinne Anizoba Linda. I graduated from University of Nigeria, Nzukka. That was in 2013. I studied Pharmacy. I just finished my Service(NYSC) and I hope to get a job and start working, my hobbies includes reading and offering some community services.

WHAT IS YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS?
NYSC is a really beautiful scheme, I used to doubt the need for it till I came into it, and completed the activities of the scheme. I could confidently say it is a wonderful scheme. The point is, it may not be for everybody, but for some people it helps them define their career path and discover their passion basically, so for me it is a very beautiful scheme. It could be boring and tiring, but then, it’s main aim is still very much valid today. My experience was wonderful, I had a very good time in Lafia, and the best part of my stay and this whole NYSC scheme is the Community Development Service.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SERVICE (CDS) ALL ABOUT?
The whole concept of NYSC is for you to serve your country. It is like a test of patriotism. Now for this Community Development Service, there are several service groups of NYSC, you are supposed to be a part of one of these groups. If you don’t fully integrate into them, it is not going to be a problem, but it is like a developmental stage, it is where they build you not to think only of yourself but to think of other people. I was actually put in the MedCom group, I had to opt out and I joined the HIV and AIDS Fighters Club because I have actually worked with people living with HIV and the orphan and vulnerable in a teaching hospital at Nnewi during my internship after school, we normally run a one year program. I worked in the HIV unit, I worked with them firsthand, so I saw their pains and I knew what they go through coming to hospitals to do the tests and to receive their drugs.

So during NYSC I took it upon myself to go to those villages, to test them, and then bring them to the hospital, offering what is called ‘escort services’. This is because, while interacting with most of them, they complain that they don’t have the means to come to the hospital to pick their drugs, they stay in villages, and these are people who are HIV positive. Sometimes they don’t even understand the procedures. We do those testing, and when they are positive, we refer them to the hospital. Now, it is not enough for you to refer them, because they don’t have the means to go to those hospitals, so you offer what is called escort services, its either you give them money to go or you take them yourself to the hospital, like I take some, and give some others money to go to the hospital.

PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE PROJECT YOU EMBARKED ON DURING NYSC?
It was still a Community Development Service program, but it was a personal one, it wasn’t a group thing, it was just something I decided to do on my own. Now, why I decided to do it on my own was that, during the times we, as the CDS group, go to schools to sensitize people on HIV and AIDS, we teach them about their reproductive health, because HIV is also part of sexual and reproductive health issue, so we teach them about their reproductive health, about puberty and about adolescence. We discovered that they have little or no knowledge about adolescent, they don’t know what to expect and how to handle themselves when they start experiencing these signs of puberty and it is more pronounced on the girls.

So I took it upon myself to give them factual and updated information concerning menstruation.
They do not know it is not hygienic to use rags and tissues. Most of them still use rags, I had a lot of them coming to me to complain, and I discovered that most of them had infections, they could feel rashes around their private parts, because they were not taking care of themselves. The thing is, these clothes they use are not hygienic. They may not have washed it properly, and you know during menstruation, the cervix is open, so they are prone to infection. It is just the same as a woman who wants to give birth, anything can go inside and it could cause a whole lot of harm to their system.

So at that point, that is when their hygiene should be paramount. That is why we use sanitary pads. They call them Sanitary pads because they are devoid of dirt, but a cloth is not sanitary, tissue is not sanitary and because they use rags and tissues which can easily get soaked and they get stained, so they miss school and they are not confident in themselves, some also said they don’t have inner wears, like they just have one pant, or something like that. I served in Lafia Nasarawa state, I did the program in two schools, one in Lafia town, and the other was at a more interior part, the rural part of Lafia.

WAS THE PROJECT DONE UNDER ANY PARTICULAR PLATFORM?
It was not really done under any platform. I just went with a general theme which was “ARMING THE GIRLS FOR MENSTRUATION”. I solicited help from organizations, like from the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, Nasarawa State Chapter. I wrote a proposal to them, they were the easiest people I could go to. I also obtained permission from the Ministry Of Education and the Ministry of Health in the state. I wrote proposals to them, and they were all approved and I was given a go ahead, to do the project in the schools.

HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO FUND THE PROJECT?
This was where I had a slight problem, in funding and volunteering, coupled with the fact that the timing was short, because I was wanted to finish before my Service was done. So I didn’t give people enough time to raise funds, but we did the much we could do within a short time and we worked very hard. The hospital where I was working during NYSC, Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital in Lafia, the Pharmacist Department assisted, and then I got some friends, and people that really keyed into the program, so that was it for funding.

HOW DID THE EVENT TURN OUT?
We planned on 500 girls, and we had more than that, that was the issue. I had four volunteers, we shared the topics we were going to discuss. Three of us were involved in the discussions, the others took care of the logistics, and it really went so well. We made it a week program, from Monday the 24rd of October, we finished on the 28th of October 2016, but one week wasn’t just enough, because they were asking so many questions and they had their issue they really wanted to discuss privately, but we didn’t have enough time to attend to all of that, we did the much we could.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE GIRLS’ REACTIONS TO THE PROGRAM?
They said they've never had anything like this in their school, that they have never had people that are genuinely concerned about the challenges they face as girls, so they were really excited. The school hadn’t adequate halls and facilities, but they were even willingly to stand, just to listen. So it was really encouraging and they felt so happy, they didn’t want us to go, they were like we should just continue to come and still help them and give them all those things.

We distributed pads and pants, and we demonstrated to them how to use the sanitary pads, especially for those that have not started menstruating. We gave them soaps, because you know, adolescence comes with body odour too and most of them don’t have access to all those things, you wouldn’t believe that some were like I should come to their house and tell their parents to be providing all those things for them. I was like, I am not going, (before they will do one thing to me), because their parents didn’t go to school, so when they tell them they need ‘this’, they don’t just understand.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SOME CHALLENGES PECULIAR TO THESE “NORTHERN GIRL”?
Let me talk about early marriages, I keep telling people that the solution to this, is to bring these kids to school, once they are in school, their minds are occupied, they may not really have that time to venture into marriages. Also, the issue of girl-child Education is a very big problem, they get married without going to school, and when you see these married girls, they can’t even make a simple sentence with English. They don’t understand the importance of schooling, because their parents, the background they are come from and the society in general, they don’t value Education. They just believe that the bottom line of a woman is for her to be married to a man.

There, even women that work, they mock them, I worked in a hospital, the women from those places working in a hospital, they see them as prostitutes, because they feel that their eye are opened, they are told things like “why are you working, You want to be bigger than your husband?”. So it is a problem. The girls need enough sensitization, even if it means given them incentives to stay in school, they don’t understand the importance of school, their whole life starts there and ends there. So they don’t understand the importance of the opportunities they would have when they go to school, and their parents are not helping too, because if they see a girl doing so well in school, instead of them to encourage them up to university level, once the girl is done with secondary school, the girl is married.




WHEN YOU WERE DONE WITH THE PROGRAM HOW DID YOU FEEL?
I felt really happy and fulfilled, because I was so skeptical, “how is this going to turn out?”, I started feeling good the moment I took the proposal to the principal, and they were like “Thank you so much, we have never heard anything like that, you just have to come to this school and do it”. They were really receptive, that was where the whole happiness started from, they loved the projects, and they said they had never had or seen anything like that.

They were actually two schools, the one farther away from Lafia, those were the ones that really needed it more. Then, coming down to Lafia, they needed it too, you know here, education is free, so everybody comes to school irrespective of whether you have enlightened parents. So you could still find people that at least have sufficient knowledge on how to handle themselves.

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO DO THESE PROJECTS?
Like I said, if I was not in that CDS group, I wouldn’t have known, because there just happened to be only two pharmacist in the CDDS group, the rest are not health inclined, so when we go for those sensitization, I am usually the one, together with the other guy who speak, so that when it gets to them asking us very crucial questions, we can answer. It was I and the guy that actually developed this project, but he had to travel before this project was implemented. When we teach them, we don’t have enough time to explain to them so we decided to shift it to an entirely different program.

HOW DID YOU FEEL YOU HELPED THESE GIRLS?
I felt, now, they don’t have any reason to be absent from school during their period, that was a major impact. School absenteeism to a significant extent must have reduced. We gave them questionnaires to fill, it helped guide our discussions, and from it, we understood their challenges. We had to lay more emphasis there, because sexual and Reproductive health is a whole lot, You talk about menstruation, ovulation, they drag you to safe period, they drag you to why they have cramps, what could be done to prevent those cramps, and mostly once they have cramps, they stay back at home, we kept telling them that cramps is not enough reason to stay back at home. There are even the non pharmacological ways of handling cramps.
I felt those myths associated with menstruation, like not going to church, or avoiding certain foods were corrected. Also, some of them do not have sanitary materials, so I believe to a large extent I supported them as it relates to their menstruation period, they were even asking for my number, and I reminded them, they do not have phones and they said, “whenever they get a phone” and I told them I would be waiting, I felt glad.

TALK ABOUT YOUR LIMITATIONS AS IT RELATES TO THIS PROJECT?
One thing is sustainability of this project, you know they give condoms for free? When I tell some organizations working with the HIV and AIDS CDS group that I am a Peer Educator, they also supply us with our Test Kits. So for these girls, those pads, soaps, towels and pants should be free for them as well. Now sex is even a choice, so if you are supplying a condom to someone who has a choice, how much more for someone who did not chose her sex, who did not chose to menstruate, you could at least help the girls by providing these pads free for them in their school, now the prices of pads are getting so high, and these people do not have parents that are enlightened, and they are poor, one of the students told me her sister would always tell her to go and use cloths, and she gets stained easily. So these things should be made available to them in their schools. I remember my own school we had those things in our clinics.
Also building bathrooms for them where they can go and change. If you go to these schools, they do not have toilets and bathrooms, even where they manage to have, it is very dirty. Some of the schools down there, they just erect one or two structures, and that’s where the entire village go to school.

HOW CAN THE GOVERNMENT ASSIST THESE NORTHERN GIRLS IN PRESERVING THEIR SEXUAL HEALTH?
One, knowledge is power, when you educate a girl, you make things very easy for her, if you don’t teach them they wouldn’t know. Sexual and Reproductive health education should be incorporated into their school curriculum. Government should try as much as possible to make basic facilities available to them. You can’t imagine a girl who wants to ‘change’, running into the bush. When you can easily walk to the toilet, change and come out, they should also make clean water and soap available, so they can wash themselves if they feel like doing so, and make the school environment as conducive as possible for them.

Parents, guardians and teachers need to start early to teach these girls that these changes are part of their life. Some of these grownups feel it is something to be ashamed of, during the program, I called out a girl to come and show us how to use the sanitary pad, she was really so shy to touch a pad, she said that there was a boy looking at her from the class.

Women should not be ashamed to be on their period at all, peradventure you get stained in class, it is not an avenue to be shy or feel so horrible about yourselves, and it is not an excuse. You stand up, go wash yourself and get back to that class and continue with your normal class activities. For me, I may have heavy flow and I could tell anyone, even if you are a guy, I will tell you, “please help me check my back”. It is something to be so proud of because there are people who at my age have not started seeing their period and that is an abnormality.






WHERE DO YOU SEE THIS TAKING YOU IN THE NEAREST FUTURE?
This is what I would want to do for the rest of my life. First and foremost, is to gather the whole knowledge and skill required. It’s not just about the girls, though I have a very huge passion for them, but it’s about Public Health issues, especially as they affect the adolescent, so I am not just going to limit it to menstruation and adolescence, there are still issue that affect people, we still have epidemics coming up, so as a career plan, I hope to obtain a Masters in Public Health, because this will help me have the requisite knowledge to handle some Public Health issues.

My long term career plan is to develop a Foundation that handles the Sexual And Reproductive Health of the less privileged. In community development work we have what is called the OVCs, they are the orphans and vulnerable children, so the Foundation is going to handle whatever sexual and reproductive health issues these people are having.

WHAT REACTIONS DO YOU GET CONCERNING THESE PASSIONS?
I remember when I was talking to a senior colleague, he was like “I buy into all these your ideas, but the thing is you are a woman and you shouldn’t dream so big, that was what he told me, and I looked at him and I told him “because you have said this, I am going to surprise you and I am going to shock you”. Being married is not supposed to be a limitation, the wealthiest woman in West Africa, that is, Folorunsho Alakija, achieved every single thing she achieved as a married woman, she is still married till date.
She married quite early. In as much as I believe in marriage, it is not a limitation. She is where she is today as a result of her dreams and she is a woman. So age or gender shouldn’t be a limitation. I am still very much in touch with him, and I will remind him years after. I get same reaction from a whole lot of people. “are you not go to get married?” I try not to allow it discourage me, I see it as a challenge. I can still be married and be successful.
Everything in this life has to do with balancing, once you are determined that you are going to have a successful career as well as a successful home, you try to maintain a balance between your home life and your work life. There are women who have a good career and a great home, to show that it is attainable.

WHAT ABOUT WHERE A HUSBAND ASKES THE WIFE TO STOP CHASING HER CAREER FOR THE WELL BEING OF THE CHILDREN?
Though there are women that are comfortable with that, I stay in the North, I see a whole of them, if they need as little as 100naira they always wait for the man to give it to them. They are very much comfortable with it, somebody like me I would not be comfortable with that, I cannot live a life where the man tells me not to work, I have my own dreams, I am going to make sacrifices quite alright, but then, while you help me achieve my dreams, I will also help you achieve your dreams, not to kill my dreams. I don’t subscribe to where a man tells you not to do anything, That is not the life I want to live for myself.

COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT THE AWARD YOU GOT?
The award was from my CDS group, I was the Medical Team Deputy Director, and the Outreach Cordinantor, I was the one in charge of organizing all those sensitizations. The award was given to me based on my commitment and dedication to the CDS group, and to fighting the menace associated with HIV and AIDS. It was from the office of the Director of Nasarawa State AIDS Control Agency, in partnership with NYSC, they are like the CDS parent organization.The other Award was an Award of Excellence as an NYSC member.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUNG LADIES?
They should take their education very seriously, and they should not allow things they cannot change or control have any effect on them, they should stand out and not be intimidated because of their gender or societal norms. They should always try to be the best in whatever they do. They don’t have to be intimidated by anyone, they should believe they can accomplish their dreams.

Also, women should encourage fellow women, especially those that are not so privileged. They should encouraged and help them in whatever ways possible. They should help mentor younger ladies, also sponsor them even at secondary school level. Those are the ways they can encourage them.
Education sets one on a right path, and on a very high pedestal, so they should focus on their education, and see that they get to the apex of their career.



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