School girls in Bomet set to sit for KCPE this year have a reason to smile after the county supplied them with free sanitary towels.
This now means each of the selected examination centres across the five subcounties will receive 800 pieces of dignity pads to be distributed to the candidates from needy backgrounds.
Bomet county First Lady Selina Barchok who launched the distribution process at Longisa in Bomet East on Saturday said this will go a long way in easing the burden of the girl child who are the most vulnerable.
She said the initiative was also past of the programmes lined up targeting women and girl child in the county ahead of the upcoming International Women’s Day scheduled for next week.
“We want our young girls to sit for their exams without any shame that is why as women we have come in handy to support them by providing these sanitary pads to them…," Barchok said.
"We know for a long time they experience trauma during their periods and to avoid it we have made sure they are available.”
She further appealed to the Ministry of Education to emulate the idea by providing such pads to all girls in schools across the country so that the challenges they face can be reduced.
Social services Executive Alice Kirui said the programme which is done yearly was informed by a previous incident where a 14-year old pupil at a school committed suicide after being humiliated by classmates over menstruation.
“To avert similar occurrences which might occur we have seen it best to ensure these girls stay in class comfortably without any feeling of embarrassed during their menstrual periods,” she said.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
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