Girls receiving sanitary towels in a past event. Photo/courtesy
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed its concern over the high number of school girls who are dropping out of schools due to menses.
This emerged during the opening of a training on menstrual hygiene in Naivasha.
According to Agnes Makanyi from Unicef, the transition of girls from ECD to higher classes of learning is on the decline.
She attributed this to some taboos around menstrual cycle.
“Statistics has it that girls going through the menstrual cycle lose 25 percent of their hours in class every month as they keep off from school,” she said.
The UN body, says teenage girls mainly in rural areas were losing up to four days per month during the menses cycle.
Makanyi was however quick to praise the government for allocation Sh11B to go towards buying sanitary towels for girls in schools.
“We are however challenging the government to consider building more washing facilities to go in tandem with the sanitary towels,” she said.
Nakuru county first lady Elizabeth Kinyanjui said there is need to make sanitary towels affordable.
“In some areas whenever a girl receives her menses, it’s a sign that she is ready for marriage and this are some of the archaic believes that we should deal with,” she said.