WUNRN
UGANDA - SANITARY PADS KEEP GIRLS IN
SCHOOL
Photo: Charles Akena/IRIN
Uganda - Pupils take
measurements of a cotton cloth to be used to make sanitary pads
AWICH, 21 July 2011 (IRIN) -
While other children head home after school, some pupils in Uganda's northern
Amuru and Gulu regions stay behind to make sanitary pads using cheap, locally
available materials, to ensure girls do not miss school during menstruation.
"Here, we are teaching girls and boys how to make sanitary towels. We use
soft cotton cloth that easily absorbs fluids. We [cover] it in polythene to
protect it from [leakage]," Nighty Acan, Gulu's
"The [sanitary] towels are easy to use because they can be washed and used
over and over. They can last several months, saving parents their meagre
income."
Local shops stock sanitary pads that cost on average 5,000 Ugandan shillings
(about US$2.50) a packet – too expensive for most of the predominantly peasant
families in northern
Lack of facilities
A lack of sanitary pads forced Vicky Akumu, 15, to use pieces of paper as
padding when she started menstruating in 2010.
"It was a difficult time because I had no pads to conceal the flow. You
know it [the menstrual blood] overflows when you have no protection, leaving
you in a mess," said Akumu. "Other pupils would tease me, saying I
[was] funny and I felt very bad."
Akumu dropped out of school but has since re-enrolled thanks to the free pad
project.
Besides a lack of sanitary pads, few or no private toilet facilities for girls
as well as a shortage of female teachers contribute to adolescent girls'
absenteeism from school.
In Gulu, efforts are under way to improve girls' retention in primary schools
by, for instance, supporting children to make sanitary towels and sensitizing
the community on the need to educate girls, Grace Amito,
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Sanitary
pads made using local materials |
About 32,000 girls enrolled in primary schools in Gulu in 2011,
representing 38 percent of the eligible population, against a national rate of
70 percent, according to district education statistics.
"Despite this low figure, we are seeing an improvement following the
intervention of development partners," the district education officer,
Caesar Akena, said.
The development partners are helping to build changing rooms for girls in some
schools, training female teachers on guidance and counselling skills and
providing sanitary towels.
At
Ben Okwamoi, an education officer in Amuru District, said boosting girls'
education was necessary for