By Mariam Namakula
Eight years down the road, an empty promise still haunts the future of many young girls in Uganda.
In 2015, while on his campaign trail, President Museveni pledged to provide sanitary pads to all primary girls. The free sanitary pad distribution exercise was expected to start in the 2017/2018 financial year when the promise was backtracked only to find that there were no funds to cater for the project.
During the same financial year, a short lived campaign dubbed Pads-For-Girl-Child Uganda” to fundraise money for pads meant for school going girls led by now exiled politician and activist Dr. Stella Nyanzi, together with other stakeholders was frustrated on allegations of being an independent move that sidelined the line ministry headed by First Lady Janet Museveni.
Post Covid-19, a similar project to donate menstrual hygiene kits in refugee camps known as Keep a Girl in School run by the Red Cross Society and funded by the UHSR was also halted due to the financial constraints.
The absence of a properly aligned structure to tackle this challenge and the ever shrinking space concerning the access to safe means of managing menstruation also known as Period Poverty has thus for over the years had a significant effect on the education, health and dignity of millions of women and girls globally but much felt in the less developed countries.
In Uganda alone, over 18% of girls are reported missing out on school each academic year with stigma around menstrual hygiene reported as one of the leading causes of school dropouts, with many resorting to using inappropriate materials such as rugs torn from their old clothes, papers, pieces of old mattress foam, and leaves.
John Cliff Wamala, the deputy spokesperson Uganda Red Cross Society, recalls how most of the girls in Namutumba, a place that initiated the Keep the Girl in School projects in Busoga sub-region where many young girls had resorted to using sugarcane huskies as sanitary napkins during their periods.
For many Ugandans who live below the poverty line, buying a regular pad that cost around $1(Shs3500) is something that many girls could not afford. The reusable pads that could have saved the day came at a slightly higher price and also carry a clean water burden to maintain them.
“Most of these young girls that couldn’t afford the pads were being deceived by young boys in exchange for sex. And for older women, they used to make matrix from cut off of clothes, blankets and substitute for pads but would end up getting infected,” Wamala notes.
To help tackle this, the Uganda Red Cross Society has embarked on a journey to establish mini reusable pad manufacturing plants across the country. The Manufacturing Plant – for instance like that in Namakwa, Mukono District – aims at significantly improving the lives of up to 50,000 Ugandan girls and women manufacturing 200,000 re-usable sanitary pads annually.
Of the 200,000, 20% will be given to 10,000 vulnerable girls in school, free of charge – directly helping to tackle missed educational opportunities for girls with the rest sold to the wider community at a subsidized price in addition to training in making and marketing these pads to ensure the long-term viability of the manufacturing facility.
“Because the challenge goes beyond central Uganda, we shall have regional mini manufacturing plants across board. We have a branch network of over 51 and Red Cross reaches to the last person at the village level due to our volunteer base of close to 500,” Wamala says.
The training offered, especially to teenage mothers who are also school dropouts, aims to not only restore hope of the vulnerable girls who will receive free reuse pads but also equip young girls with skills to make their own and impart the knowledge to others in hard-to-reach areas.
Atuhurra Angella Marjorie, the Founder and CEO Safe Girl Initiative Uganda, explained that for a country to grow its economy, local manufacturers needed to take upon the initiative of producing what is demanded by the market.
Atuhurra explained that while most of the pads are imported, it was empowering that local innovators came up to bridge the gap which will eventually be able to supply to match the demand.
She noted that producing reusable sanitary pads is environmentally friendly practice and that government should also embrace the strategy and offer the much needed support.
“If the government can come in and support even with the other agencies helping, the local manufactures can supply free pads and the government should ensure a stable supply of clean and safe water to enable proper use of these sanitary towels.”
She said menstrual hygiene is such an important issue that required support from all stakeholders, including men.
Through sensitization, she believes many will get to understand but also appreciate the dynamics of being a woman and also break the barriers and stigma around menstruation to a point where sanitary pads are given out for free just like condoms in most public places.
