Treat the need for Menstrual Pads and girls’ personal effects as a top priority like Food

According to UNESCO, one in ten girls across Sub-Saharan Africa miss school when on their period. This is having a huge impact on their education as some girls’ miss dozens of days a year. Cost is the biggest reason as school girls are often unable to afford sanitary pads.

With the COVID 19 situation children in Uganda are still at out of school/home and most care takers/parents see menstrual needs as secondary. Initially schools had made it compulsory for parents to buy for their daughters’ sanitary pads for school terms. Of course the Covid 19 has hit the economic status of families. This economic constraint has negatively changed financial priorities of families; provision of sanitary pads to girls/daughters is one of the items that has quietly been left out. The girls have continued suffering silently since menstruation is a private matter which speaking about is taboo.  In a number of studies conducted, girls have attributed to their accepting gifts and money from strangers due to their lack of personal needs for items like knickers and menstrual pads which parents can’t provide. This has resulted in many girls getting pregnant from such men offering them money to meet their personal needs.

It is for this reason we are mobilizing support of sanitary pads and knickers to reach out to girls in Teso in Uganda. This year as we celebrate the Day of the Girl Child on 11 October, 2021 I am mobilizing friends like you to support at least a girl with a humble package of re-useable sanitary pads. (2 pads, 2 Knickers and piece of soap). I call upon every woman here and especially my sisters Uganda to support my initiative.

I am focusing on reaching out to 100 girls in Soroti in Teso (Eastern Uganda) with a motivating message to avoid unprotected sex and hear their story. |These girls need to be spoken to, to be supported.

Ms. Igoye , the ministry of Internal Affairs deputy coordinator in trafficking in persons department said that there has been improvement in the state of the roads in the eastern Ugandan districts, but while the construction was ongoing, the Ugandan and Chinese constructors engaged in unprotected sex with many girls in the area which has led to many children born being unaccounted for. According to Igoye, the people that are responsible for the young mothers in the areas include both Ugandan and Chinese constructors under Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Co) who have been working on the roads in the districts.

https://www.independent.co.ug/road-constructors-impregnate-1000-girls-in-soroti/

https://observer.ug/news/headlines/71343-1-000-teens-impregnated-by-road-workers-in-soroti