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Give sanitary pads to save girls
Menstruation is still looked at as a taboo topic and few people dare to talk about. While in school, girls are bullied and called just because they are undergoing menstruation. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Many girls in the rural areas who drop out of school in upper primary do so because of lack of separate toilet facilities and easy access to a water source. Besides, young girls are forced to skip school during their monthly periods to avoid both the high cost of pads. Some girls have testified that they accept monetary offers from men to help them buy sanitary towels. They always pay back by offering their bodies for sex, which may lead to unwanted pregnancies, HIV infections, etc and eventual dropout of school.
I was seated in a shade of an HIV adolescent centre in Teso. Above my head was a transparent box full of condoms. I asked the in-charge whether they sell condoms to the adolescents and she told me they provide them for free to stay safe, avoid reinfection and unwanted pregnancies. I applauded her for the great work.
She told me that even if the adolescents who come to the facility are HIV positive, they still need to avoid early pregnancies. She added that boys use condoms to help them not impregnate girls which can result in starting a family at early age.
“Do you also give sanitary towels for free to girls?” I asked. She told me that sanitary towels are supposed to be bought by parents or caregivers as they can’t be given for free. I told her that if we provide free sanitary towels to the adolescent, we shall ensure their safety and keep them in school to avoid high school dropouts.
Menstruation is still looked at as a taboo topic and few people dare to talk about. While in school, girls are bullied and called just because they are undergoing menstruation. In many villages, sanitary towels are neither affordable nor accessible, which expose girls to high risks of infections when they resort to using improvised materials such as old clothes and banana fibers.
Such girls experience psychological torture and exclusion, which can result in missing school when they are in their periods.
Every month a girls has to stay away from school during their period. This means that a girl has to miss school for three weeks in the 12 weeks they have to be in school. A girl absent from school due to menstruation for four days in 28 days a month loses 13 learning days equivalent to two weeks of learning in every school term.
It is estimated that within the six years of secondary education, the same girl loses 234 days of learning equivalent to nearly 34 weeks out of 216 weeks of learning. Consequently, a girl-child potentially becomes a school dropout even as they are still at school.
Many girls in the rural areas who drop out of school in upper primary do so because of lack of separate toilet facilities and easy access to a water source. Besides, young girls are forced to skip school during their monthly periods to avoid both the high cost of pads. Some girls have testified that they accept monetary offers from men to help them buy sanitary towels. They always pay back by offering their bodies for sex, which may lead to unwanted pregnancies, HIV infections, etc and eventual dropout of school.
“Educate a girl, educate a nation”, is a popular statement we keep hearing. Can we have an educated nation when girls are dropping out of school due to lack of sanitary pads and those who remain in school are silent dropouts? What pains more is that condoms are free everywhere but sanitary towels are not yet a woman can forego sex, but they can’t forgo menstruation.
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