A community-based organisation in Mombasa county has launched an initiative to address sanitary pads challenges in the county.
Usaidizi Usaidizi Women and Girl Child Society founder Peninah Mwakio said lack of sanitary pads has made teenage girls vulnerable to sex predators.
She said the biggest sex predators in the county and other urban settings are boda boda riders.
Mwakio said the initiative is also aimed at fighting the misconception that teenage girls in cities and urban areas do not have difficulty in accessing sanitary pads.
She said this has led to growing number of early pregnancies in primary schools in urban areas.
“Girls in primary schools like Mombasa go through the same challenges with those in rural settings," Mwakio said.
"They fall prey to boda boda riders who exploit their lack of sanitary pads when their monthly flows come,” she said.
Mwakio spoke when she distributed sanitary pads to 300 Grade 6 and 8 girls at Ganjoni primary school.
The pads are expected to last the girls three months.
The organisation visits one school per month to distribute the sanitary pads to teenage girls.
“Whenever we visit a school and talk to the teachers, we find three or four girls are pregnant," she said.
"These girls were duped to having sex in exchange for sanitary pads,” she said.
She called on the government to put in place strict measures to address the crisis.
“Sanitary pads should be provided in all schools so that no girl ever misses class or is forced to go home because of their monthly periods,” Mwakio said.
Ganjoni primary school head teacher Johnson Kibuga said many people have been misled to believe that girls in urban schools have easy access to pads.
“The truth is that we have many girls in schools like Ganjoni, who come from families who are unable to afford sanitary towels,” he said.
Kibuga said there are girls in urban schools who use clothes and pieces of sanitary towels during their menstrual periods.
He urged Mwakio and other well-wishers to continue equiping schools with sanitary pads for emergency cases.
“Even those who come from well-to-do families may be caught unawares. These monthly flows do not knock. What if they come while the child is in class and they did not expect it? Should we send that child home?" Kibuga asked.
"No! We need to have some sanitary pads in the school for such emergencies,” he said.
Ganjoni Primary School has at least 500 girls in Grades 6,7 and 8.
Kibuga said schools in slum areas are more vulnerable to predators.
Mwakio called for more stakeholder involvement in the sanitary pads distribution initiative.
"We do this on the basis of resource availability. If we do not have the resources to get the pads, then we wait till we get them.”
