Education stakeholders have asked the government to roll out a programme to provide free sanitary towels for school girls across the country so as to improve their menstrual hygiene.
They averred that a high number of girls, especially those who hail from poor backgrounds cannot afford to buy the towels thus interrupting their studies during menses.
Renowned artist Avril Nyambura and Jasper Muthomi alias MC Jessy asserted that girls in rural areas continue to perform dismally in their academics due to lack of sanitary pads.
Speaking at Mwana Wi Kio Secondary School in Gatanga, Murang’a County during distribution of sanitary pads to over 1,500 girls by Del Monte Kenya Limited (DMKL), they said that the government has the capacity to roll out the programme and sustain it.
“The issue of thousands of school girls missing classes due to lack of sanitary towels has been overlooked for long. It’s high time the government considers supporting our girls and especially those from rural areas with the towels so as to enhance their menstrual hygiene and enable them concentrate in their studies,” Muthomi said.
DMKL Human Resource Manager Gerald Matoke said that the government should partner with the private sector to see the programme come to fruition.
He opined that the government should create favorable policies that will significantly reduce the cost of production for local manufacturers who produce sanitary towels so as to enable them boost their production capacity.
“Our country has the capacity to produce enough sanitary towels for our young girls in all schools. This will be achieved once the government works together with our local industries to enable them produce enough for free distribution across the country,” he said.
Matoke said that through the public-private partnership, women’s health in the country will be advocated for.
“It will also help reach out to the village girls in remote areas and those who hail from humble backgrounds to teach them on how to handle themselves with care during menses,” said the manager.
The company Head of Public Relations Jackline Muthoni said that the firm has embarked on the programme of issuing free sanitary towels to schools within the surrounding community with an aim of empowering the girls to achieve their full academic potential and curb the high rates of menstrual-related absenteeism.
“We are committed to ensuring teenage girls in our community are equipped and empowered with information and materials to meet their menstrual health needs, so that they can focus on their education without worrying,” she said.
Muthoni said that the donations will sustain the girls for over three months adding that the firm will make the programme sustainable and extend it to more beneficiaries.
She noted that the sanitary pads distribution drive is part of DMKL’s Women’s Health and Empowerment initiative, following a commitment it made with the United Nations Foundation (UNF) to empower the lives of more than 10,000 women, including its employees and the community, by providing them with health services and information on reproductive health cancers, contraceptives, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and menstrual health by 2024.
“Many girls are not able to access menstrual hygiene products, with Ministry of Health statistics published in 2019 indicating that 65% of women and girls in Kenya cannot afford them. That is why as a Company we came up with this menstrual health program to support teenage girls’ education and ensure that they live in dignity, while on their periods,’’ she averred.
Ministry of Education statistics published in 2018 indicate that girls miss 13 learning days in a term when they miss 4 days a month because of their periods.
In an academic year of 9 months, this accumulates to 39 lost days, equivalent to 6 weeks of learning time.
Therefore, a girl in primary school between grades 6 and 8 (three years) loses 18 learning weeks out of 108 weeks. Within the four years of high school, a girl can lose 156 learning days equivalent to almost 24 weeks out of 144 weeks of learning. This is approx. 17% of learning time lost.
By Kamau Njoroge
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