Over a thousand school\u00a0girls in Kanyamwa Ward in Ndhiwa Sub County have benefited from sanitary towels courtesy of Mpesa Foundation.<\/p>\n
The Foundation\u2019s Monitoring and Evaluation Lead Officer Gilbert Ebole noted that many girls from vulnerable families are unable to purchase\u00a0sanitary towels which makes them vulnerable to sex pests who engage them in sex in change for\u00a0buying them the sanitary materials.<\/p>\n
Statistics reveal that Homa Bay is among the top counties with high prevalence\u00a0of teenage mothers at 24 percent.<\/p>\n
Ebole said in response to the dire situation, MPESA Foundation stepped in by\u00a0donating to some girls the sanitary materials to help them maintain\u00a0menstrual hygiene.<\/p>\n
He said the company has a programme that focuses on prenatal and neonatal\u00a0health.<\/p>\n
In the programme, the company and other non-governmental organizations\u00a0have come together to help women and girls in the county during\u00a0pregnancy and postnatal care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project is meant for making women live in dignity. We\u2019re trying\u00a0to protect girls from early pregnancy,\u201d Ebole said.<\/p>\n
He made the remarks today at Okok primary school in Kanyamwa Ward where he donated sanitary kits to school girls.<\/p>\n
Each kit contains three packets of sanitary towels, soap, a menstrual\u00a0awareness booklet and panties.<\/p>\n
Ebole said the initiative is also meant to prevent infections among girls who would otherwise use crude methods\u00a0to control their menses. He said it also promotes self-esteem among the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp to 25 per cent of school girls miss school due to periods thus disrupting their\u00a0education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said so far, the Foundation\u00a0has distributed at least 800,000 dignity kits to girls in different schools across the country.<\/p>\n
Ndhiwa Sub-County Police Commander Paul Rioba warned parents who collude with suspects in defilement cases to defeat justice.<\/p>\n
He instead urged them to report all cases to relevant authorities to curb the vice.<\/p>\n
The Police Boss noted that in some cases, they ensure no one testifies against suspects in court adding that poverty\u00a0is the main challenge influencing the cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us all take responsibility to protect our girls because they are\u00a0our future. We are leading in defilement and teenage pregnancies and it must change,\u201d Rioba\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Homa Bay County\u00a0Executive for Gender Sarah Malit announced that plans are underway for\u00a0mentoring teenage girls so they do not fall victims of defilement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s burdensome when lives of the future generation are ruined at\u00a0early stage. Let\u2019s work together and address the teen pregnancy\u00a0menace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Homa Bay Deputy Director of Health Amos Dulo urged the government to supply free sanitary towels as it does to condoms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over a thousand school\u00a0girls in Kanyamwa Ward in Ndhiwa Sub County have benefited from sanitary towels courtesy of Mpesa Foundation. The Foundation\u2019s Monitoring and Evaluation Lead Officer Gilbert Ebole noted that many girls from vulnerable families are unable to purchase\u00a0sanitary towels which makes them vulnerable to sex pests who engage them in sex in change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18389,"featured_media":79433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest-education-news-from-kenya-and-the-whole-world"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblaze.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}