Menstrual Hygiene Day, a global advocacy platform for non-profit organizations and government agencies has revealed that 65 per cent of girls and women in Kenya are not able to afford sanitary pads.
The advocacy platform is for non-profit organizations and government agencies that promote menstrual health.
In another study conducted by the Ministry of Education, it was found that girls missed four school days per month on average which equates to two weeks of learning per term owing to the menstrual cycle.
The same situation applies to girls in Kenyan tertiary ad higher education institutions where most of them girls and women are not able to obtain sanitary pads.
In a bid to address these findings, Kibabii University Staff and faculty members who dubbed themselves as “KIBU WOMEN’ have started an initiative to support female students at the university.
In attendance at the event was Prof. Stanely Mutsotso the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Student Affairs).
“We have a long list of needy students within the University and we all know it is a human indignity for our girls to lack these basic things,” said Prof Mutsotso.
The Deputy VC lauded the gesture terming it admirable and implored people to support these cases so that girls and women do not drop out of school due to a lack of sanitary towels.
The team also revealed that they run campaigns to end the stigma resulting from menstruation by providing education on menstrual hygiene management and that menstruation has long been associated with taboos and myths that exclude women from many aspects of cultural and social life.
“Period stigma is a discrimination faced by young women and girls who undergo verbal shaming as unclean,” said Dr Chemutai.
The initiative managed to reach out to many needy girls at the institution and provided sanitary pads boosting their self-esteem and improving their academic performance.