Key Activities:

Reusable sanitary pads are a game-changer for keeping girls in schools, especially in rural areas where access to affordable menstrual products are limited or not affordable. In many rural schools in Busoga, West Nile, Rwenzori region and Lango region, inadequate sanitation continues to fuel a silent crisis around menstrual hygiene and reproductive health leading to increased absenteeism and stigmatization. Girls often miss classes, suffer stigma in silence, and face exploitation because their schools lack the facilities and support to meet their menstrual health needs and lack of reproductive health education and sensitization against stigma and creating a supportive environment for girls. Some school girls begin menstruating while in primary school with no parental guidance and no access to pads. They try to tore pieces of their own clothes to use as a make shift sanitary materials missing nearly a week of school every month. Their struggles worsens as boys bull them leaving them humiliated and fearful leading to some students abandoning school for good resulting into early marriages. This calls for the sexual health and reproductive education awareness programs in these regions, where girls can learn how to make reusable pads as a long-term arrangement, but in the short term, there is need for the provision of reusable pads as an opener for a long-term program. This can restore the girl’s dignity and confidence, keeping the girl child in schools and control to early marriages. There is a lot of stigma associated with this effect, lack of support still drives many girls out of school. In rural communities’ menstruation is often seen as the start of motherhood, forcing girls into early marriage. This calls for awareness and sensitization programs in these communities on the dangers of early marriages so that the girls can focus on their studies and participate fully in school activities without interruption.