NGO launches centre to fight ‘Triple threat’

Forum for African Women Educationalists has launched a menstrual centre in Kakamega to fight triple threat.

The centre at Holy Cross Sango Girls Secondary School is expected to curb teen pregnancy, HIV and sexual and gender based violence.

Western regional coordinator Laura Doresi, said the menstrual centre will provide psychological support, information on sexual reproductive health, nutrition and prevention and response to SGBV.

The centre will also provide reusable sanitary towels to teenage girls in Kakamega and its environs.

Principal Mary Wasike said a good number of students at the school are teen mothers.

She said menstrual poverty has highly contributed to the high teenage pregnancies.

Wasike said some learners also experience gender based violence at home.

"The girls open up to me during my counselling sessions with them. There is this one girl, who told me that the father tried to defile her," she said.

Wasike said orphans are also vulnerable and highly exposed to SGBV.

“There are girls who stay with their grandmothers and due to their grandmothers' inability to provide for them sanitary pads, they end up being abused," she said.

“Some come to my office to ask for sanitary pads while the timid ones go to men who demand sex in exchange for the products."

Menstrual poverty has also been linked to poor performance of the girls.

Teenage mothers, who are re-admitted to school also battle stigma from fellow students and the society.

Fawe has also partnered with MasterCard and is running a project to improve the lives of adolescent girls who dropped out of school due to pregnancy.

The Imarisha Msichana project will be implemented 20 counties and seeks to take the teen girls back to school.

“We started this project in 20 Counties after many girls dropped out of school during the Covid-19 pandemic," Doresi said.

“We have also started Tuseme clubs in schools to help the girls share their problems."

Bumula MP Jack Wamboka has initiated menstrual cups distribution to curb menstrual poverty.

More than 9,000 SGBV cases on girls aged between 10 and 17 were recorded between 2016 and 2023.

Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2022 says 62 per cent of Bungoma women have experienced both physical and sexual violence.