P&G celebrates 10th Anniversary with Always ‘Keeping Girls in School’ Campaign

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is celebrating its 10th anniversary of the Always Keeping Girls Program that has been giving out free sanitary pads and education to girls in Kenya and in Africa.

“No Girl LeftOut of Puberty Education by 2020,” according to Ms Faiza Lahlou, and Dr. Eliane Brigger from Procter & Gamble.

 “Typically, young Teenage girls (10-13y.o.) need more information, more education and more secure environment to talk about their period,” they add as regards to why they are shifting to online media to reach out to girls to impart awareness on the use of sanitary pads during menstruation.

 ‘To commemorate this achievement, P&G will be running an in store campaign between June 11th 2016 and July 10th 2016 dubbed ‘Stand up and Keep a girl in school’ whereby for every 2 duo packs bought by a consumer, they will provide one packet of Always to keep a girl in school for one year,” reads a statement seen by Soko Directory.

 For the last two years, the program targeted girls of primary education in order to help them stay in school as they prepare for the final examinations that will give them an opportunity to get into high school. The premise is that if the girls are able to stay in school and concentrate, they will be able to perform better and also compete on an almost equal platform with their boy counterparts.

 This was in line with the Millennium Development Goal 3 whose target was to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.

 An estimated 6 million girls in Kenya enter puberty every year, experiencing transformative changes as they transition into womanhood.

“One in two of these girls manage to complete school due to the disruption brought about by their menstrual period and many never truly recover it,” according to P&G.

 “This is because they are not able to afford sanitary towels, thus most of them being forced to stay away from school for the period that they will be on the menses. Some go to the extent of completely dropping out of school due to the low self-esteem, embarrassment, and stigmatisation which in turn affects their education.” 

 For most of these girls coming from poor backgrounds, sanitary pads are a luxury as some of the things given priority include how to get food on the table and not sanitary pads. These girls and most impoverished women end up going for unhealthy alternatives like the use of pieces of old clothes, bits of mattresses, leaves, newspapers or even reusing pads that have already been used by someone else.

 Always Keeping Girls in School Program is to empower as many girls as possible by ensuring they do not miss out of school due to lack of sanitary towels. Apart from providing them with free pads, they also equip them with knowledge on puberty so that they can understand the whole concept. This makes them plan for their future well by them staying in school, and working towards achieving their dreams since their self-esteem is raised.

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. This is why they urge each one of us to go out and purchase a pack of Always pads for ourselves, our sisters, girlfriends or even wives.