Centenary Bank, Uganda Red Cross partner to improve menstrual hygiene in vulnerable schools

Centenary Bank in partnership with Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) have donated over 500 re-usable sanitary pads to girls from vulnerable communities in Kampala district, as part of the Keep-A-Girl-In-School (KAGIS) initiative launched by URCS in March 2019.

The beneficiary schools are St. Ponsiano Primary School and St. Mary’s Primary School – Kibuye. KAGIS is in line with a Menstrual Health Management initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Education and Sports which highlights the plight of girls missing school because of lack of sanitary pads to use during their monthly menstruation cycle.

Speaking during the handover event, Robert Kwesiga Secretary General-- Uganda Red Cross Society thanked Centenary Bank for supporting a humanitarian cause to Keep more Girls in School through sensitization and provision of pads, and for choosing to partner with Red Cross on this cause.

"KAGIS is part of the Uganda Red Cross Society Health and Social Service Agenda under Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Interventions – which plays a crucial role around key issues such as health, education, protection and security of women and adolescent girls, both in emergency and in the development context," he said.

Centenary Bank Executive Director Joseph Balikuddembe said the bank is privileged to work with Uganda Red Cross Society to make a difference in the lives of girls from vulnerable communities.

From the research conducted by Uganda Red Cross in 2019, menstruation poses several challenges to adolescent girls and young women, especially school going ones and these among others include;

• Many girls lack prior knowledge about menstruation and sometimes get scared and worried about who to speak to and this leaves them with a vacuum that brings mental breakdown.
• Social norms may lead women and girls to feel that menstruation is dirty, shameful or unhealthy and this restricts them from school attendance and participation in games.
• Without access to good menstrual materials and private toilets or washrooms for changing, girls and women may not want to go far from home. Girls and women may not attend school or go to the market. As a result of lack of access to hygienic sanitary wear, girls and women have resorted to using inappropriate materials such as rugs torn from their old clothes, papers, pieces of old mattress form, leaves and in some cases in the rural communities, being house bound to sit over a hole dug in the middle of their mud floors till the menstrual flow ends.
• School going girls who get blood on their clothes are often teased by teachers, boys or other girls and this has been reported as a significant cause of school drop out for the girl child.