Sanitary Towels Revolution!

In Kajiado district, Kenya, Aidlink and the Girl Child Network have overseen huge successes in our project to improve the participation and performance of girls in school in the district.

About 2/3 of all schoolgirls in Kajiado are missing school on a regular basis. This is mostly because they cannot afford sanitary pads.

A girl absent from school due to menses for 4 days in a month loses 2 weeks of learning in every school term. Over the duration of a school year she loses a full 6 weeks of learning time. Within the 4 years of high school this same girl loses the equivalent to almost 6 whole months of leaning, around 2/3rds of a school year.

What we have achieved:

• Girl-friendly latrines were constructed in 29 schools with over 4300 girls directly benefitting from access to improved clean and girl friendly hygiene sanitation facilities.
• Water tanks were constructed in 21 schools with over 7300 members of the school community now having direct access to clean and safe water.
• Sanitary towels are being provided to girls in 37 school across Kajiado. Over 2500 girls are now directly benefiting from the availability of sanitary towels.

We have also helped in the formation of community youth groups called the Rights of the Child clubs (ROC clubs.) New ROC clubs have so far been formed in 16 schools across Kajiado and 24 previously formed ROC clubs have been supported and strengthened through mentoring and trainings. These clubs empower both young boys and girls to be aware of their rights and help in their education on important issues such as sexual maturation, life skills, HIV & AIDS, gender equality and skills in saying ‘no’ to female genital mutilation (FGM.)

Cases of absenteeism of adolescent girls have reduced by an average of 45% in all our project schools.

Through this network of ROC clubs over 20,000 children in Kajiado have been sensitized on these issues. However it is not just about educating the child. We have also worked closely with School Management Committees, teachers and Community leaders, providing various trainings and resources on all of these issues to ensure that the communities support and adopt the programme so that it becomes sustainable long into the future. We have even seen cases of girls who had dropped out of school enrolling back into school as they feel they are now more comfortable to participate in education. 47 girls from the target schools have enrolled back to school over the last three years. 17 boys were also reported as enrolled back to schools in the target area as a result of the new availability of water within the schools.

This project has already seen huge success and is going to keep on expanding to new schools and reaching more and more school girls in need in the year to come.

Furthermore, as a result of the Sanitary towel campaign the Government has now pledged to provide each school with a budget for sanitary towels. This is a great step forward but until this pledge is fully realised we will continue to support as many girls as we can.