In a move to boost school attendance in Kenya, the government will be providing free sanitary pads to schoolgirls.
One in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa misses school during their period, as per to the UN’s education agency. Many of these girls fall behind in their studies and eventually drop out of school.
As a lot of them don’t have access to sanitary pads, they choose to stay at home and use rags or tissues during their periods.
But now as per the amendment to the education act, every schoolgirl in Kenya is entitled to “free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels” and they should be provided with “a safe and environmental sound mechanism for disposal”.
Speaking to Reuters, Albanous Gituru, director of Shining Hope for Communities, a girls’ school in Nairobi’s Kibera slum said, “This will give girls confidence to attend class on any day of the month, consequently improving their academic performance.”
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