Help a Girl Stay in School by Purchasing a Duo Pack of Always Sanitary Pads

When a girl child hits the age of 13 years, most of them start experiencing some changes in their bodies, one of them being menstruation, which is the monthly flow of blood by women.

It is so sad for a teenage girl, especially those from poor background when they start their menstruation and they cannot afford sanitary towels used to control blood from soiling their clothes, which tends to be so embarrassing.

Such girls are forced to use rags or even toilet papers when going to school, while most of them prefer carrying an extra sweater that is used to tie around their waists as a way of hiding their soiled uniforms and being stated at by other students, especially boys.

It is estimated that one in 10 African adolescent girls in remote areas misses school during their menses and eventually end up dropping out of school because of menstruation related issues. Studies have shown that many girls in Kenya miss 3-5 days of school every month during their monthly periods due to lack of sanitary towels.

Any teacher would tell you that a girl without access to sanitary towels feels embarrassed, unhygienic and uncomfortable, she also loses self-esteem and with that the confidence to interact with her classmates or with teachers in the classroom. This deliberate absenteeism is mainly as a result of lack of financial resources to afford the cost of conventional sanitary towels available in the market.

Most of these girls as well as women are forced to use unhygienic clothing materials to keep dry during their menses, a situation that on many occasions causes embarrassment to users as the materials are leaky, to avoid such situations; these girls avoid school. This makes it hard for female students to compete with their male counterparts in education putting the female child a step behind.

A girl absent from school for four days in 28 days (month) loses 13 learning days equivalent to two weeks of learning in every school term. In an academic year (nine months) a girl loses 39 learning days equivalent to six weeks of learning time. A girl in primary school between grades 6 and 8 (three years) loses 18 learning weeks out of 108 weeks. Within the four years of high school a girl can lose 156 learning days equivalent to almost 24 weeks out of 144 weeks of learning in high school.

This is why Procter & Gamble (P&G0 took up the initiative of ensuring that teenage girls from poor backgrounds are not out of class due to lack of sanitary towels. They are now celebrating their 10th anniversary of the Always Keeping Girls Program that has been a platform used to issue out free sanitary towels and providing girls with knowledge about their bodies and the whole menstruation process.

Between June 11th 2016 and July 10th 2016, P&G will be running an instore campaign to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the Always Keeping Girls program. As a way of celebrating with them, P&G urges all of us to visit any Tuskys or Nakumatt outlet in the country and purchase a duo pack of Always pads.  For every purchase made, P&G will match and donate the same to a needy school in Kenya.

Since 2006, P&G has been able to touch the lives of over 80,000 girls around the worlds and over 28,000girls in Kenya and South Africa.