( Angela Wahu is the CEO and founder of ChokoraCulture, an outfit helping street families)
Has it ever occurred to you that the lives of the homeless girls in the streets are a nightmare every month when periods come knocking hard?
Mercy Nduta, a teenager who has known the streets of Nairobi as her home since birth recently narrated to the ChokoraCulture Movement how she and other girls in the streets cope with their periods.
Nduta plaintively recalls that she lived with her mother in the streets until she was six-years-old when she abandoned her.
Left with no choice, she sought refuge at a shelter for the homeless but she could not stand the beatings and molestation. She moved out to the streets where she has been living since.
“I think the hardest thing about been homeless is being a woman!” retorts a young Nduta.
“I remember the first time I got my periods, I froze in fear! My mother left before she ever taught me about my periods and no one had ever mentioned the word to me. The fact that I was just bleeding was so terrifying," she recounts.
Her first encounter in her bodily changes caught her unaware, forcing her to flee to a bush not knowing what was happening or what to do next. A colleague of hers – a street girl came to her rescue with a ten-shilling coin to buy a piece of tissue paper in place of a pad.
On that particular day, she begged like never before. Every coin she got was spent on buying tissue paper to stuff in her pants.
“By night time, I only had a 10 shilling-coin. I had to choose if I wanted to buy some peanuts for supper or get some more tissue,” she says. “I chose to get some more tissue then I walked around the street scavenging for some leftover food and fruit in the dustbins.”
Nduta has since been taken through basic reproductive health sessions in regard to periods. She now knows that headaches, cramps, backaches, nausea, terrible mood swings and vomiting signify the start of her periods.
Nduta hawks peanuts and chewing gum to afford the basics of life which for her is just a packet of chips. On a good day, she makes Sh80.
However, when she is on her periods, she doesn’t work as much because she cannot afford to buy any food for herself.
She has to make the hard decision of either buying sanitary pads or food. Her explanation, “I always choose to buy the pads because I’d rather be clean than have a full stomach."
There are a number of homeless mothers who are going through financial strains trying to buy pads not only for themselves but their daughters too.
“We have to be creative using rags, socks, tearing pieces of your dress or trouser or T-shirt, paper bags, papers from the dustbin, newspapers, tearing up soft cardboards or posters from the wall, basically anything we can find,” adds another homeless girl who requested not to be named.
Though there a number of organisations donating foodstuff and clothing items to the homeless, feminine products such as sanitary towels are hardly donated.
The ChokoraCulture Movement together with the Family Wellness Centre plan to donate foodstuff, clothes and feminine hygiene products to those living in the streets.
They are also educating other younger girls on the normal menstruation process and other basic lessons about reproductive health.
Feel free to drop off any of your donations to the following:
Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC)Lower Ground FLoor LG9- Advocate James Kimani Githongo office.
Safaricom – Lipa na MpesaPay Bill Number – 522522Account number – 1204222878
Lipa na Mpesa Buy Goods and Services Till Number – 529161
Family Wellness Centre Kenya, KCB Bank, Account Number - 1204222878KICC Branch.
Contact us on+254 724 025115+254 722 715424