Abuja Women’s Run to Distribute Free Sanitary Towels to 500 Girls

February 23, 2025

Run Club Abuja (RCA), is demonstrating its commitment to the girl-child by utilizing proceeds from the first Abuja Women’s Run, a 10 kilometer charity run held on Saturday 22nd February 2025 at the Nation’s capital, to gift five hundred girls from selected secondary schools in Abuja free sanitary pads for the next six months in a gesture aimed at tackling period poverty that is affecting the girl-child education.

In Nigeria, an estimated 37 million women and girls experience period poverty, meaning that they are unable to access or afford menstrual products like pads and tampons. And as such Five hundred women in the Federal Capital took part in the 10km charity run which started and ended at City park in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital territory.

Also Read: RCA Women’s Run To Tackle Period Poverty In FCT

According to the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee of the Abuja Women’s Run charity run, Mrs. Ibe Onyebuchi speaking with the press during the event said it was aimed at celebrating women ahead of the 2025 International Women’s Day and building a community of women in the Federal Capital Territory.

“We’re trying to celebrate women for March 8th. But since it’s Ramadan, we had to move it. We’re going to use the funds raised from this to buy pads for 100 girls each in five different government schools. We’re going to repeat it time and time again. Hopefully we’ll not be doing 500 women, we’ll be doing 1,000. And if we’re doing 1,000 women, 1,000 girls to be using pads, the higher we go, the more. So yes, we are going to definitely be repeating this so yes, we are going to definitely be repeating this next year and upper year by the grace of God.”

Mrs. Onyebuchi described the event as a huge success following the large number of turn out which included a 70-year-old and 8-year-old runners.

Meanwhile, Henry Okelue, founder of Run Club Abuja, disclosed that they raised N3,000,000 (three million naira) for community service, noting the impact of period poverty on young girls’ education.

“This means a lot for us. Women are the bedrock of society. Next month is Women’s Month, and in a bid to celebrate our women, we decided to do this event. It has been accepted widely. We are excited with the number of people that showed up. It’s our own way of fighting period poverty, and we hope that as we do this in coming years, more women in Abuja will come out and join, and the men will line the streets and heal them as they are completing their run.

For the charity program, for the community service, For the charity program, for the community service, we raised about three million.”

Okelue added that the club chose a run for the charity in a bid build on the growing wellness culture among women due to its enormous benefits to physical and mental health.

The oldest runner at the event, 70-year-old Mrs. Maria Ojo who completed the 10km run under 1 hour 33 minutes explained that she was able to hit the goal due to her constant prioritizing of physical exercise and her general wellness. She also called on Nigerians irrespective of age to invest their time and resources to their health.

“It was so beautiful, I enjoyed it. I pray for more to come. When I was about to retire, this is when my son introduced me to this thing. He said, when I was about to retire, this is when my son introduced me to this thing. If you retire, you can’t be sitting at all, you will be weak. So Nigerians should always invest in their health”

Two other participants, Aver and Ana Michael who were excited to participate in the charity run called for more sponsorship by the government, nongovernmental organizations and individuals to promote initiatives that boosts health and wellness.