blog week 4

Caroline Kiriga: Blog submission week 4

Sanitary towels: A Universal Human Right?

 

Here's a regular statistic, and then a shocking one: Every month, a large percentage of the world's adult population menstruates. But in emerging markets, that group can scarcely afford the protection. Many thousands are still forced to exit their daily lives and livelihoods during their monthly periods. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKmt7PwYPCY

 

 

I am not sure that the execution of this video campaign is the most compelling but this strikes me as a totally underreported reality. This is a subject that I am personally very passionate about. Research has showed that many girls do not attend school because they could not afford to buy commercially made sanitary towels and 90% of the urban poor were improvising with unhealthy materials such as banana fibers grass leaves, old newspapers and pieces of cloth that did not provide reliable protection.

 

"Makapads" a project that was started by a Uganda professor Dr. Moses K. Musaazi of Makerere University faculty of technology in 2003 with funding support from the Rockefeller foundation, is making affordable sanitary pads from locally available materials and is keeping young girls from poor families in school all month all as well as generating local employment for many women, men and girls in Uganda. Makapads sell much more cheaply than imported sanitary pads.

 

This innovation is relevant because earlier research has found that many disadvantaged primary schoolgirls absent themselves during menstrual periods and those that attend do so under stigma and tension for fear of soiling themselves. The absenteeism leads to poor academic performance and subsequent dropping out of school by the girls. The Makapads project's primary objective is to retain young vulnerable girls in school instead of dropping out of because of absenteeism during their menstrual periods.

 

Makapads are 99% local materials and the main raw material is papyrus reeds, which is cut from the vast, abundant swamps and riverbanks all over the country.

Apart from producing safe, cheap sanitary towels the project has generated development of simple cottage machines which are locally manufactured and that use more than 95% local materials as well as providing employment and skill development to more women, girls and men.

 

 

She (Sustainable health Enterprises) campaign is another project whose mission is to improve the quality of life of women and girls in developing countries. Donations don't work long-term. Market-based approaches do, so why leave them just for the business world? Let's apply them to some of our biggest social problems in the world, especially in the health arena.

 

From a holistic policy perspective, marrying the education of girls and women with the provision of sanitary towels seems like the right move. This is a basic basic commodity and is integral to female development. Schools worldwide should support young women who might otherwise miss crucial elements of their education or career.  As we know, educating women and offering them a means to understand and regulate their fertility is a key component of economic progress in developing nations. "Protecting futures" has reached approximately 115,000 girls in 17 countries and is committed to reaching 1 million girls by 2012; So if you are a girl, mother, have a daughter, sister, a niece, a friend or know anyone that is female please let us join efforts to provide sanitary protection, sanitary facilities and puberty education to help vulnerable girls stay in school.

 Caroline Kiriga: Blog submission week 4