By Jeremiah Chamakany
In a move aimed at improving girl child school attendance in Africa, hundreds of Non-Governmental organizations throughout the republic of Kenya are donating millions of free sanitary towels to the girls and mostly in rural primary schools. While this is laudable in ensuring that girls are able to stay in class during their menstrual days, these disposable towels cannot be afforded by all the women, and are also a detriment to the environment.
Apart
from clogged sewerage systems, secondary schools administrations are
all around the country are spending Millions of shillings through
companies that specialize in collecting, and disposing the already used
sanitary pads. It is not yet clear how much effective the companies are
in destroying the already used sanitary towels, but they is a likelihood
that about 70 percent of the already used sanitary towels end up in the
open dump sites around the country.
If
for example you visit the open dumpsite at Mogotio Westland’s Estate,
you will be greeted by a mountain of some already used sanitary
pads,just like massive Molo River,the river that transports her luggage
to the Lake Baringo downstream. The river is choking with hundreds of
used Sanitary pads, floating in the river all the way from Salgaa
trading center,Kamwaura and the entire Njoro catchments. Some of those
disposed sanitary pads can be seen hanging loosely on some tree branches
along the river, and can easily be mistaken to be some kind of a bird
nests. With this testimony, one does not need to attend a seminar to
understand what will soon happen to the marine Life in Lake Baringo, and
especially if those in organic materials end up in the intestines of
out treasured Hippos.
With
this frightening information in mind, a ray of hope through the Rotary
Club of Eldoret may help change this dangerous trajectory. In
partnership with Padmad Reusable Sanitary Pads Project founded by Madhvi
Dalal,the Rotary Clubs of Eldoret headed by Eunice Kerich as the
President are all in a mission to do away with disposable sanitary Pads.
They are now introducing a new brand that can be reused as many times
as possible. According Madhvi Dalal, founder of the project and working
with slum women in Nairobi,her move was inspired by the fact that 65
percent of Kenyan women cannot afford sanitary pads.
‘’The
reusable pads are easy to make and will ensure that a woman or a girl
can manage her menstrual flow without digging into her pocket,or
engaging in the dangerous transnational sexual relations in order to get
money to purchase the pads every month’ said Dalal in an interview with
the Scolar at Kipsogon primary school in Mogotio ,where they donated
the product in the presence of the Baringo First Lady Her excellency Ivy
Kiptis .
Her
excellency Madam Kiptis used the occasion to reveal that many teenage
girls depend on their 'illegal boyfriends to buy sanitary pads for them,
and that the same boyfriends end up impregnating them.
‘’
Married bodaboda men are doing a big mess in Baringo.Many girls coming
to deliver is Esageri health center point a finger to some married
bodaboda men who turn them into mothers, just because they bought
sanitary towels for them.Just imagine that for a sanitary towel worth
Ksh 35.00,a girls entire life is ruined’’ said the angry looking Madam
Kiptis, a professional in the Health sector who is also advocating that
mothers must come to the rescue of their daughters,by helping them
manage this biological and very healthy situation.
This
narrative may now change because according to Dalal,the reusable pads
are made from old cotton clothes and a girl can learn to make some for
herself, and her small sisters. ‘’Girls will now take charge of their
reproductive lives because this pads are cheap to make and on top of
that, they a big advantage to the environment .Disposable sanitary pads
take up to 800 years to fully decompose and therefore a threat to mother
nature’’ said Dalal.
Kipsogon
Primary school Head Teacher Musa Mutai said many girls miss school each
month because their poor parents cannot afford to buy the disposable
pads for them.
‘’Many
parents are only concerned about finding the next meal. They don’t have
the money to buy sanitary pads for their daughters because to them that
is a luxury and therefore, the naïve and frightened school girl is left
with the responsibility to figure out how to handle her situation ‘’
said the Head teacher ,adding that the introduction of the reusable pads
is a giant leap in ensuring that girls from poor families will never
have their studies disrupted, just because they are in their monthly
period.
Dalal
said the reusable pads can play a great role in safeguarding our
endangered environments, given that the disposable sanitary pads can
take 800 years to decompose.
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