Health
Siaya Strategic Assembly (SSA), a community-based organisation (CBO), has started a pad bank at Got Abiero secondary school in Bondo to enhance access to sanitary towels and improve menstrual hygiene for female students.
Got Abiero secondary school becomes the fourth school in Siaya County to benefit from the SSA initiative after similar pad banks were established in Lieta, Bondo Township and Mbaga girls’ secondary schools in the last four years.
Speaking during the launch of the pad bank at Got Abiero secondary school, West Gem Member of County Assembly Susan Okwiri said that the pad bank is intended to encourage stakeholders and parents to carry at least a pad for donation whenever they visit schools.
Okwiri said the initiative by SSA will supplement both the national and county governments’ efforts to ensure that girls in Siaya County have access to sanitary towels. The MCA called upon stakeholders in the education sector in the region to donate sanitary towels to schools where the banks have been established saying the shortage of pads can only be bridged through concerted efforts by all stakeholders.
“I know that there are different initiatives from both the national and county governments to avail the pads to our girls but there still exists a gap which can only be bridged by all the stakeholders’ joining hands and working together to provide more sanitary towels,” Okwiri stated.
SSA secretary general Isaac Ngiendo who spoke during the donation of 25 boxes of sanitary towels to the school said the CBO has been supporting school activities in the region including provision of sanitary towels to schools in the county.
Ngiendo said the CBO relies on like-minded friends and leaders to pull resources together through networking and providing support to schools in the region. The CBO chief whip Esther Amondi disclosed that the pad bank initiative primarily targets day secondary schools in Siaya County because of the economic vulnerability of the students learning in day schools.
“I have been a teacher in day schools for several years and from experience I know what girls in such schools go through during their menses. Most of them use inappropriate materials because their parents cannot afford sanitary towels,” Amondi said.
Amondi, who is currently a teacher at Ngiya girls observed that unlike their primary school counterparts who benefit from sanitary towels provided through government donations, students in secondary schools suffer in silence and have to miss school during menses over lack of support.
She encouraged the involvement of boy students in menstrual education saying the boys need to be brought on board to understand that menstruation is a natural process and they need to support their female counterparts during this period.
“It is important that we involve the boys from early on so that there is no shame in discussing menstruation; some of the men shy away from buying their daughters sanitary pads but if taught early, they will be part of the lives of their daughters and would buy them pads so that predators do not take advantage to sexually exploit the young girls.
Got Abiero secondary school Principal Gladys Opondo expressed gratitude over the sanitary towel donation from SSA saying it will help address the problem of absenteeism and impact positively on the academic performance of the over 200 girls in the school.