Menstrual Health & Hygiene Management

Health

Menstrual Health & Hygiene Management

Thousands of girls in the rural areas of Kayunga district have little or incomplete knowledge and are not prepared and aware of menstruation, lack access to sanitary pads or unable to afford them. Most of them end up using rugs, grass, banana fibers to collect their menstrual flow, exchange their bodies for pads and miss school during their periods which affects their academic performance.

Poor menstruation is a barrier to girls’ education and their overall health and well-being.A report by Ministry of Education and Sports indicates that about 23 per cent of Ugandan girls in the age group 12-18 drop out of school when they begin menstruation.

Thousands of girls in the rural areas of Kayunga district experience period poverty and stigma as menstruation is often considered a taboo and most of them have little and incomplete knowledge and are neither prepared nor aware of menstruation, unable to afford them and resort to unhygienic substitutes like rugs, grass, banana fibers to collect their menstrual flow, exchange their bodies for pads leading to health issues, and girls not attending schools while on their period.

 

Tackling period poverty among adolescent girls in Kayunga district is one of our goals because we envision a World in which girls never miss school because of lack of sanitary pads. We carryout community awareness and education to dismantle taboos and shame around periods and not only distribute sanitary pads to girls, but also train/skill them on how to make re-usable sanitary pads to sustain them for a longer period of time and be able to stay in school to further their education.

The program has so far reached out to 320 girls, both school-going and out of school adolescent girls in 3 sub-counties of Kayunga district.