Nakuru government targets more than 200 households in the informal settlements that will see teenage girls not in schools receive sanitary towels.
According to the Health CeC Dr Samuel Mwaura, this will be as part of the joint initiative targeting schools in the larger Nakuru County.
Mwaura said sub-county education directors will be responsible for earmarking schools, while chiefs and churches will facilitate the process in slums.
Speaking in his office at the county headquarters on Thursday, the CeC said more than 600 primary schools had been selected, 400 secondary schools and 10 middle-level, community based institutions.
“This time round, we chose to do an overall supply because concerns were raised from the first batch that some groups were left out,” he said.
He further noted that girls from the slums who don’t go to school were in dire need, adding that a good number of them are forced to use rags during menses.
“We have been concentrating in schools forgetting that we have other children silently suffering in the slums. In fact, the situation there is too sad with many of them remaining indoors for fear of the shame and ridicule,” Mwaura explained, adding that the matter was brought to their attention during a recent stakeholders meeting in Naivasha.
He called on the private sector to help deal with the situation in the informal settlements, arguing that those were places feeling the direct effect of lack of basic commodities.
“Illiteracy, poverty and harsh living conditions have subjected many girls to teenage pregnancies; a situation which can be reverted if we join hands,” he said.
Mwaura expressed confidence that if all machinery was put in place, the end product will see more than 400,000 girls receive pads in the county.
Separately, County Public Health Officer Samuel King’ori noted that the county would spend Sh30 million to facilitate the schools programme.