Sanitary pads still out of reach for school girls

For Olga Elikwita a Form Four student at Matimbwa Secondary School in Bagamoyo  District, missing school on certain days has become a routine.  Like other girls who come from poor families, sanitary towels are luxury items. “There are times I have to miss school because I don’t have sanitary towel. I prefer staying at home for some days since I feel very uncomfortable at school,” says Olga.

Not only are girls like Olga deal with lack of sanitary products, they are also stigmatised by cultural attitudes that regard menstruating women and girls as dirty.

UNESCO estimates that one in 10 African adolescent girls miss school during their menses and eventually drop out due to lack of sanitary towels. Hoping to help their fellow female students, some youth from Tanzania Aspiration Initiative (TSI) visited some schools in Bagamoyo District to see the challenges most adolescent girls face and possibly try to come up with solution.

Out of 409 students who attend Matimbwa Secondary School, 208 are girls. Leonila Wilbroad , a teacher and matron at the school highlights economic hardship and difficult learning environment as the main contributors for absenteeism. According to her, the cost of sanitary towels is beyond the reach of most girls who are living in poverty.

She adds that another challenge facing the girls is lack of proper information about reproductive health starting from the family level because some of them are raised by their grandparents who can’t sit down with them and freely discuss such issues. “Because they don’t have care and guidance from both parents, what happens is that these girls end up getting wrong information about reproductive health issues,” she points out.

She also highlights the issue of outdated traditional practices. She says some girls are forced to miss school for a whole week once they reach puberty because their tradition demands that they stay indoors for seven days and should not be seen by their fathers during that period.

For many girls living in poverty, getting sanitary protection on their priority list might take a long time. However, having hygienic and practical solutions to managing menses would be a big relief for such girls who are at times forced to use dirty rags.

On her part Upendo Abisai, a volunteer with TSI is worried about the alternatives that young women have to turn to because they cannot afford sanitary towels. “The situation is bad, most of these girls can’t afford Sh 1,500 to 2,000 to buy a packet of sanitary towels . The problem is how they handle home-made alternatives which may bring complications to their health. The fact that some of these young girls see their friends and fellow students using pads while they can’t afford is saddening, this forces some of them to look  for ways to get money so that they can buy the pads.”

Ms Abisai says TSI has taken an initiative to buy some sanitary towels and other items to donate to the girls.  “It is not much but we believe this can make a difference, we want to make them feel comfortable at school so that they won’t miss school and jeopardise their future,” Ms Abisai adds.

Grace Kabendera, a Form Four student, says that there is also the issue of clean and private lavatories. “Sometimes you can afford one, but then disposing the pads is another issue,” she says.

Lillian Madeje, managing director of Professional Approach Development, a Non Governmental Organisation working with the youth, spoke to some  of these students and said there was an existence of limited knowledge about the biological  process of menstruation among the girls in schools they have visited with few of them being able to describe the menstrual cycle.

“We realised that menstruation is still a taboo topic, these adolescent girls’ access to relevant and important information about their bodies and reproductive health is generally very poor. The girls we have talked to have described menstruation as a time of anxiety and discomfort especially at school, leading to low concentration in class,” she says.

She added that they have now taken it upon themselves to educate the girls on what they need to do to attain their goals. She also blames parents for letting teachers do all the work.