Restoring lost hope in schools through WASH and MHM

In Uganda’s overcrowded public primary schools, adolescent girls have silently battled with menstruation, and issue long neglected within the Education sector.
Every child has the right to a quality education which includes access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services while at school. Children spend a significant portion of their day at school, where WASH services can impact their learning, health, and dignity, particularly for girls.
In Uganda, girls have a low track record of completing their maximum education level, one of the reasons being lack of access to menstrual hygiene products. The SNV/IRC study report (2012) on Menstrual Management in Uganda also shared the relationship between menstruation and absenteeism in schools by girls -noting that 60% of the girl-pupils absented themselves from schools during their menstruation. The report indicated that on average, there are less than 220 learning days in a year and missing 24 days in a year translates into 11% of the time a girl pupil will miss learning due to menstrual periods. There is limited availability of feminine hygiene products like disposable pads, tampons and other products among school-going girls. Desperate to stop the monthly flow, girls most often resort to using pieces of cloth, shreds of foam mattresses, toilet paper, newspapers, banana plant fibers and even leaves. Not only are these options ineffective and uncomfortable, but are also extremely unhygienic, putting girls at risk of diseases. If hygienic practices are not followed during menstruation like changing sanitary pads after every 4 hours, washing and drying re-usable sanitary towels properly in the sun, and washing hands after handling using sanitary pads, then the chances of getting Urogenital Tract Infections increase. To improve school retention and achieve learning outcomes for adolescent young girls in upper primary schools, Development & Relief Initiative Uganda – DRI-Ug partnered with the Islamic Relief Nederland (IRN), the government of Uganda through the line Ministries and Wakiso district local government in a project “Empowering Girls to stay in School through providing Menstrual Hygiene Support”
This project has not only ensured provision of sustainable clean water, it has created safe spaces for bathing changing and resting provided reusable menstrual pads and placed others in the safe spaces to support girls during emergence days, warm water bottles painkillers and encouraged schools to plan and restock for sustainability, provided menstrual beads to facilitate early detection of their menstrual cycles and perhaps more importantly, trained mentors/peers (teachers & Pupils) as role models for psychosocial support. For the full story, visit the link attached below.
https://lnkd.in/dss7Sek

By Dr. Asiimwe Denis Baka