Reusable Pads: A Key to Promoting Girls Enrollment and Retention in School

Menstruation is a big issue affecting many rural school girls that causes some students to drop out of school entirely. Every child has a right to education, but a lack of menstrual hygiene solutions is often a barrier for girls in rural communities.

Disposable menstrual pads are often not available or too expensive for families in rural areas, forcing many young women to use alternatives or to go without sanitary pads altogether. Often, female students will use cut pieces of old clothes and chitenges as their menstrual pads, but these are easily soaked and may stain their clothes, which can be embarrassing. For this reason, many girls will skip school to avoid the potential embarrassment and shame associated with stained clothing. Due to its monthly recurrence, some girls can miss 3 to 4 days of school per month, inevitably affecting their performance and possibility leading to them dropping out of school.

Reusable sanitary pads are a cheap, effective and empowering tool for rural young women. They are also an eco-friendlier way to approach period care because instead of throwing away several disposable pads every month, reusable pads can be used for many months and even years, as long as they are properly taken care of. For a several years, Impact Network has been implementing a pads project in our Katete schools to address period poverty and to ultimately keep more girls in school. The project’s two main activities are menstrual education and reusable pads creation. The menstrual education teaches girls what menstruation is, when it starts, what to use and how to dispose of or wash pads. The girls cut and sew the various materials - chitenge, waterproof, and fleece - for their own pads, then add a button or snap, thus learning how to do it again in future or to pass on the skill to others. In addition, they make a small bag that allows for discreet drying in the sun.

By educating and training girls on menstrual hygiene and how to make reusable sanitary pads themselves, we enable them to move forward in their lives with more knowledge and confidence in themselves and their bodies.

Through the reusable pads project, Impact Network has created opportunities for girls in some rural communities to feel empowered and stay in school. In term 1 alone, 363 young girls at 7 schools in Katete created 1,064 reusable pads and drying bags. It’s with excitement that I can share that Impact Network is expanding this project to additional schools with the mission to help more girls with menstrual hygiene.

-Elida