Girls in Lamu terror-prone areas miss school over lack of sanitary towels

The majority of poor school girls from terror-prone areas in Lamu County are unable to consistently attend school during menstruation due to poverty and subsequent lack of sanitary towels.

The situation has been occasioned by the immense poverty in the areas and poor hygiene infrastructure for the girls.

As a result, many of these girls have to miss school every time they are having their menses.

The population of school boys has resultantly tripled while that of girls continues to dwindle.

Boni Forest has five primary schools namely the Milimani, Mangai, Mararani, Basuba, and Kiangwe primary schools, all of which are located close to the Lamu-Somalia border.

Data from the Lamu Women Alliance reveals that close to 60 percent of school girls in Boni forest miss school each month due to period poverty.

The alliance has since initiated numerous programs to counter the situation but the Executive Officer Raya Famau says their efforts alone are barely enough and called for the county and national government and other partners to come on board and help alleviate the period of shame and poverty.

Famau noted that the situation has worst affected Boni girls and those from pastoralist communities owing to the fact that the two are minority groups and have recorded the highest poverty levels in the county.

She appealed to players in the public and private sectors including NGOs to intervene and donate sanitary towels to the affected school girls to enable them stay in school and pursue their education even during their menstruation time.

“The fact that these girls have no pads as they can’t afford them is the reason they can’t attend school as consistently as they should. That's why the number of girls dropping out is also high. As LAWA, we have a program to distribute free pads to secondary schools but we need more hands on deck because we can barely meet the high demand,” said Famau.

She wondered why a government plan to distribute free sanitary towels to primary schools has not taken off since last year.

“We majorly do secondary schools but then we have girls in primary schools who need the same. The government was to start supplying last year but nothing has happened and we are wondering,” she said.

Boni forest community leader Fatma Shizo said most of the girls have to stay home during their period as they have no towels and that schools in the areas have no changing washrooms for the girls.

“That means between four days to a week each month, the girls can’t sit in class. The shame that comes with it also needs to be addressed so that even the boys are taught early on that, it's something normal which shouldn’t be mocked,” said Shizo.

She said the situation has affected the school attendance of the girl child as most end up dropping out of school altogether.

Bargoni village elder Doza Diza appealed to both governments to effect a workable plan to enable Boni girls to access sanitary towels and stay in school.

“It is unfair in this day and age for girls to miss school because they have no sanitary towels yet we have county and national governments in place. It’s actually a shame, to say the least,” said Diza.

Efforts to reach the Lamu County Education Director, Joshua Kaaga for a comment were futile as he was unreachable.

On May 28 each year, the world comes together in marking International Menstrual Hygiene Day whose aim is to create a world where every woman and girl can manage her menstruation in a hygienic, safe and dignified manner.

It is on this day that the government, NGOs, and others all work together to advocate for menstrual hygiene and break taboos.

The overarching goal is to build a world where no one is held back because they menstruate by 2030.