During
a week in August I attended several girls forums in and around Nairobi, organised
by Girl
Child Network (GCN). These forums dealt about menstruation,
the lack of sanitary towels and the current solutions they adapt and their
disadvantages to leading a normal life and the discomfort
these alternatives cause.
There are several reasons for girls to drop out of school but one of them
is the lack of sanitary towels.
I already
had an idea of what to expect and how I would like to proceed but I needed
to see this with my own eyes to ‘feel’ the environment and to
confirm if my idea/proposal would be of anygood. It made me realise how much
sanitary towels are needed in these rural areas and what kind of a difference
it can make in a
girl child’s life.
But unfortunately just sanitary towels is not enough, the missing link here is the education, as girls don’t get informed about the normal body changes that they are about expect and how to deal with this mentally and physically. This was the starting point for our educational toolkit.
Educational game - Field research