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The national and county governments have been urged to provide sanitary towels to schoolgirls as one way of protecting them from sex predators.
Usaidizi Women and Girl Child Society said on Monday some girls do not have access to sanitary towels, which sometimes leads them to being taken advantage of by sex predators, who lure them to bed with promises of buying them pads.
“They are not doing well. If they were, we would not be forced to jump in to help. Sanitary pads, just like condoms, should be readily available in schools," founder Penina Mwakio said.
“But how many schools have these sanitary pads being distributed free of charge or at least even at subsidised rates?”
She spoke in Bangladesh slums, Jomvu, in Mombasa county where she distributed sanitary towels to 300 girls.
Mwakio said it is a shame that girls, even in urban areas, are still using tissue papers, rags and handkerchiefs to try and deal with their menstrual flows.
The girls sometimes miss school for up to two weeks because they do not have sanitary towels.
“It is a shame some of the girls are sexually exploited and end up either getting pregnant, infected with diseases or they lose self-esteem. This sometimes leads to depression and some die by suicide just because they could not afford sanitary pads,” Mwakio lamented.
She said early pregnancies have gone down significantly in 20 schools in Mombasa because of the sanitary towel programme her organisation has initiated.
Learners at Ganjoni, Kashani, Kisauni, Likoni and Malindi primary schools are some of the beneficiaries of the programme, which offers girls sanitary pads that last three months each term.
“I am also a mother to girls and I know the pain they go through. I would not like to see them or any other girl suffer due to lack of sanitary towels,” she said.
Mombasa county senior gender officer Sameer Hashim said lack of sanitary pads is one of the contributory factors to sexual gender-based violence in Mombasa.
He said the county government has set up a gender-based violence situation room at Tononoka Hall, where vulnerable girls and victims get help.
“We have also partnered with different organisations to distribute sanitary pads. However, more organisations need to come on board because the county government cannot work alone,” Hashim said.
He said the county conducts SGBV awareness talks in schools and distributes dignity kits to girls.
“It is a big disaster in Mombasa and we usually ensure there is a budget for such awareness talks and dignity kits,” Hashim said.
Victor Odongo, the chairman and founder of Alpha and Omega, a youth group that runs a girls empowerment programme, urged well-wishers to chip in and provide sanitary pads for vulnerable girls in Mombasa.
He said with the high cost of living, parents are overwhelmed with basic needs and usually feel sanitary pads for their children are a luxury and not a necessity.
