As part of measures to promote emotional intelligence and mental health of couples towards ensuring households’ stability, the Women Affairs Secretariat, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced menopause awareness programme for Abuja couples.

Launching the programme yesterday in Abuja, the Mandate Secretary of the Secretariat, Dr. Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, noted that the initiative was part of the Secretariat’s message of advocacy of caring and collective shared responsibility, which is a critical key to unlocking social economic wealth.

According to her, most of the issues affecting marriages are derived from the failure of relationships between men and women, which explained why couples were invited to be empowered with vital knowledge to efficiently handle the situation.

She said: “Menopause is historically seen as a woman’s problem, but we use this now to translate the investment of our own care, not just as Women Secretariat, but one that is investing in holistic emotional security of our environment or communities. Economic empowerment become wasted empowerment when people are in a place of emotional challenge especially within their families. Happy people are healthy people; and healthy people create wealth and economy.”

While speaking on the topic “We-Factor”, Dr. Benjamins-Laniyi explained that the We-Factor embodies the essence of community, support, and shared experiences, particularly during menopause. She defined menopause as the stage in a woman’s life when her menstrual periods stop permanently, and she can no longer get pregnant. She added that for some women, the menopausal transition could bring various symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, trouble sleeping, joint and muscle discomfort, and pain during sex, moodiness and irritability, forgetfulness, difficultly concentrating, or a combination of all the signs.

Furthermore, the Mandate Secretary noted the need for collective support for women experiencing menopause, particularly from men to maintain their emotional stability needed to ensure a happy household.

On her part, the acting Director, Women Affairs Department of the Secretariat, Mrs. Aina Sanni, revealed that the Department brought couples and others stakeholders from across the six Area Councils of the FCT for the maiden edition of the programme, as it is first one ever in the history of the Secretariat. She said: “We discovered that menopause is something that is affecting women in the society. And the women can’t handle this alone, hence the need to get men involved in the process of helping them cope and overcome it. With the kind of people we have at the top like the FCT Minister, the Mandate Secretary, every year we will be having the programme, so this is just the beginning.”