The First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Fatima Bio on Friday, 24th February, 2023, warned all male teachers in Waterloo not to visit school girls at their homes after 6 pm.

Dr. Fatima Bio, who was speaking at the Bassa Town football field, in the Western Area Rural District during the distribution of the free sanitary pads to the school going girls also said some male teachers were in the habit of protecting their girls at home and destroying the future of other’s children.

She told the pupils and parents present of the President’s desire to always keep the girls in school, adding that it was on that basis that she has been distributing free sanitary pads.

“A packet of these sanitary pads will last with you for a period of one year. Menstruation is not a crime. So, you should never be ashamed to go to school whenever you are experiencing it. These free sanitary pads would enable you to avoid using pieces of cloth as alternatives”,  she told the school-going girls.

She also said the inscriptions on the packets of each sanitary pad which reads ‘marriage is my choice, education is my right’ were words of encouragement from the President, urged the girls  to read those inscriptions anytime they want to use the sanitary pads.

The First Lady also advised the pupils not to be tools for politicians ortools for election violence.

Chairman of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), in the Western Area Rural District, Dr. Eldred Taylor, urged the everyone present to ignore the conspiracy theories about the pads distributed and focus on the message of the President and the First Lady.