By
MORIS MUMBERE,
E- society
KASESE: Educate a child international
a community based organisation has donated sanitary pads to several school
going pupils in kasese district which are to be used for a period of one year.
‘As one way of keeping girls in school, we realised that there’s need to
intervene so that we can keep young ones in school since menstrual periods
disrupt the education career’ John Monday the executive director said.
Monday said after making a clear research about menstrual hygiene they
were concerned after finding out that girls use unhealthy rags as pads which
influenced the organization to lobby for pads from Afripads to assist those in
school.
He added that, research indicate that, Young girls need to change their
sanitary pads three or four times daily during the first 3 days of
menstruation. The vast majority of women
and girls in Kasese district use rags, torn old clothes, T-shirts, leaves, dry
cow dung and mud, animal skin, toilet paper, bark cloth in emergency situations
instead of sanitary pads.
Monday further explained that, Rags are washed and reused several times. There
is no private place to change and clean the rags and often no safe water and
soap to wash them properly which is a culture of shame and embarrassment which
forces them to seek for well hidden places even in their homes to dry the rags.
This exposes them to illnesses and infections such as urinary and vaginal
infections.
Schools that received were Kamaiba primary school, kasese primary
school,Nyamwamba primary school, Uganda martyrs Nyakasanga primary
school,Kyanzuki primary school, and Katiri primary schools. We are also
thankful to Kasese municipal council for getting involved in the selection of
beneficiaries, witnessing the distribution and for giving us cars that we used
in the program.
The kabugho Rita a pupil among those we talked to hailed the organization
for remembering them saying government should do the same for so that young
girls can stay in school since the mestratration affects them.
End.
