The Girl Initiative has asked the government of Tanzania to initiate a programme for providing sanitary pads to girls in schools to help those who cannot afford to buy them.
The Director of the NGO Ms Rebecca Gyumi, made the call in Dodoma recently during a safe menstrual stakeholders’ meeting aimed at looking on how the issue of safe menstruation can be improved to enable girls access right to education.
Development Diaries reports that the non-governmental organisation’s (NGO) Director, Rebecca Gyumi, made the call during a safe menstrual stakeholders’ meeting.
She said menstrual health issues must be tackled with urgency to enable girls to access education.
Women account for about 51 percent of the total population in Tanzania, with almost a quarter of them being adolescent girls; and more than 120,000 girls drop out of school annually, according to figures from the World Bank.
Another study shows that 74 percent of girls reported pain and discomfort, and 42 percent of girls reported lack of access to menstrual products, as contributing factors for them missing school or not participating fully at school.
Approximately 18 percent of girls and women face challenges accessing menstrual products in Tanzania with only two percent of schoolgirls, mostly in urban areas, having access to disposable pads.
‘The presence of value-added tax on these products is one of the reasons why they are sold at high prices that many girls cannot afford, hence forcing them to use other materials that are not safe for their health and sometimes engage in risky behaviour in order to obtain high-quality products’, Safe Menstrual Stakeholders Forum Secretary, Severeine Allute, said.
With a significant number of girls in Tanzania missing school due to menstrual health and hygiene challenges, the government must work towards ensuring access to products and facilities.
Development Diaries therefore calls on Tanzania’s Ministry of Health to provide easy and affordable access to menstrual health and hygiene products and facilities.
Photo source: Nasieku
