Menstrual Kits Help Reduce School Absenteeism in Kenya

Free menstrual kits that also include information about safer sex and HIV prevention are being distributed to Kenyan girls in an effort to address school absenteeism among low-income families.

Developed by Huru International (New York, NY, USA) in partnership with many other groups, the program was initiated after a preliminary study among young girls in Kenya's Mukuru slum area revealed that girls who cannot afford sanitary napkins uniformly described their periods as ordeals. They expressed feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and isolation, and felt unable to attend school, play with friends, or even leave the house. Some created homemade solutions out of bits of old clothing, scraps of mattress padding, and even used pads found in the trash. More than just uncomfortable and inadequate, these unsanitary substitutes often led to infection and disease.

As a result, most of the girls simply choose to stay home, avoiding the stress, uncertainty, and humiliation of makeshift protection; many reported that as a result they always felt left behind in school, unable to catch up with the work they had missed, and that the these gaps in their education were almost impossible to overcome. In addition, the girls often began to receive pressure for sex from men, including their male teachers, when it becomes clear that they were ovulating.

In response to these findings, Huru (which means "freedom” in Swahili) developed and began distributing the sanitary kits. Each kit comes packaged in a drawstring bag that doubles as a backpack, and includes eight reusable sanitary napkins; three pairs of underwear; soap to wash the sanitary napkins; a waterproof bag to store safely used sanitary napkins; an educational insert featuring information on proper sanitary napkin usage, and HIV/AIDS prevention educational material.

An ongoing study by researchers at Oxford University (UK) on sanitary care effect in Ghana found that on average, the rate of school absenteeism was cut by slightly more than half, from about 21% of school days to about 9% of school days. In the village where education material alone was provided, there was also a reduction in absenteeism, but the effect was delayed.

"To overcome community beliefs about the unimportance of educating girls will take at least a generation of intense effort on the part of NGOs and governments, but the simple intervention of educating the girls about her period and providing her with a reliable, clean, and private way to manage it, could have a dramatic impact on female education achievement within only a few years,” said Professor Linda Scott, Ph.D., the lead researcher on the study.

Related Links:
Huru International
Oxford University