Published By Adeola Ogunlade
The Endometriosis Support Group Nigeria (ESGN) has announced that its annual Secondary Schools Essay Competition now covers schools in Lagos, Delta state, and Abuja, in a bid to increase awareness about Endometriosis among students.
The Grand Patron, of ESGN, Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, announced it at a press conference held recently as part of the activities for Endometriosis Awareness for 2022.
He said that the month of March is celebrated worldwide as the Endometriosis Awareness Month, noting that the global community is beaming its searchlight on the condition called endometriosis
“In January, in furtherance of our resolve to create awareness among adolescent females, we announced our annual Secondary Schools Essay Competition. This year we have driven our campaign to cover schools not only in Lagos but also in Delta state and the FCT’.
The doctor noted that the move is to create more awareness among adolescent females.
“This year we are raising the bar a notch higher by adding a special award to the school of the 1st prize apart from the individual prize money
“We believe that these partnerships will help shape the workplace and school policies that may see better support for women living with endometriosis”, he said.
Ajayi said that the ESGN was beginning to see that a lot was being missed in adolescents, so now the focus would be on adolescents. “We have been doing that indirectly anyway by going to the secondary schools because that is where endometriosis starts.”
He stressed that the development was one of the motivations for the ESGN to team up with the Nigeria Institute for Medical Research, NIMR, to investigate the causes and extent of painful periods among secondary school girls in Lagos.
“We wanted to do that study to know what is the percentage of schoolgirls that have the symptoms of endometriosis that we can start looking at what to tell them.
The event will feature a cross-section of women living with endometriosis sharing their stories for a global audience. Medical practitioners will also provide perspectives to the management of the condition.