Every child has a right to education but the lack of access to sexual and Reproductive information, and safe menstrual hygiene solutions are often barriers to girls mostly in a rural setting where some families can’t afford to buy sanitary pads every month.
According to the Ministry of Health Uganda, one in every four girls between the ages 12 and 18 drop out of school once they begin menstruating, for those attending school, girls’ absenteeism rate triple from 7% to 28% during their periods. In addition to this, poverty and lack of menstrual materials force these girls to drop out of school or end up in early child marriage because they have no access to the equipment. On average, a girl in a rural setting misses 45 school days annually which in most cases end up as school dropout cases
Although these barriers were in place, Covid-19 and its impact accelerated the issues at hand as many children stayed home longer than the usual academic holidays.
During this period, Jeneration Agenda reached out to 200 young adolescent girls and women in Tororo district to give them hands-on skills in making reusable pads, providing them menstrual hygiene materials to help reduce the number of teenage pregnancies among the girl child and child marriage.
OUR STORY
Jeneration Agenda is a youth-led organization that empowers youths and women to live dignified and sustainable lives. We are mainly focused on four thematic areas, that is health, education, livelihood, and entrepreneurship.
The founder and team leader Mr. Benon Onyango led a Campaign “Pads For Girls in Tororo”, a district where over 1800 teenage girls got pregnant in the first 3 months of the Covid-19 lock-down. As part of the Campaign, the Jeneration Agenda also aimed at tackling menstrual myths and stigma that often especially cultural beliefs that condemn the natural process of menstruation as “dirty” and impure, breaking the barrier to access to sanitary pads that are a big reason for school dropout among girls.
“We don’t want to see this escalate and that is why we are empowering young girls to make informed decisions and also enable them to access the right information on reproductive health,” he says . This is what the majority of young adolescent girls in rural Ugandan schools face when they lack information and materials on sexual and reproductive health.
Entrepreneurship.
In the campaign carried out by the Jeneration Agenda, we provided livelihood and entrepreneurship skills to the girls and women of Nabuyoga and Paya Subcounties in Tororo district. The skills included the making of hair shampoos, liquid soap, and bar soap. Through these skills, they are able to afford essentials for themselves.
“If they are able to afford these necessities for themselves, they will be able not to seek help from people who will take advantage of their vulnerabilities,” says Mr. Onyango.
Jeneration Agenda is empowering young girl activities within the communities to take charge and action by training trainers who can empower their fellows in the community.
“The opportunity Jeneration Agenda has given us will help many young girls in our community stay in school because those girls who used to drop out of school when they start their menstrual cycles, will continue to stay in school. This project will enable us to teach more girls how to make reusable pads”, according to Miriam Akullu a Youth Secretary For Finance at Nabuyoga Town Council.
She further noted that the project will help parents spend less on pads, since the girls know how to make their reusable pads, instead that money will be given to them to buy food at school.
Nyachwao Faith Christine, one of the participants says that this has reduced her expenses on buying pads, and it has also given them skills to make pads that are comfortable enabling her to stay in school.
The reusable pads are simple and easy to use, once people are equipped with the skills to make reusable pads, then we shall have more girls stay in school than drop out because of lack of menstrual materials. Some people think washing menstrual blood is disgusting but just like dirt on your clothes or sheet, and you have to wash it, so are the reusable pads.
Written by: Maggie Olore