8th and 11th of December, 2021
Project Title: Responding to the Menstrual Hygiene and Physiotherapy Needs of Girls, especially those with Special Needs in Kajiado North
Field Report: Nakeel Primary School
Nakeel primary school is one of the 9 schools covered by the project ScandiCare is implementing to meet the menstrual hygiene needs of girls needs in Kajiado North. Many girls miss or drop out of school due to the stigma associated with menstruation and the prohibitive costs of sanitary products. Kajiado North is one of the districts in the larger Rift Valley province with the largest number of special needs education units and a high number of children with disabilities (approximately 70%) have multiple disabilities, cerebral palsy and other conditions that impair mobility and optimal functioning of limbs, a fact that negatively impacts on their education. Other categories of learners with disabilities include those with Mental Handicap/Intellectual Disability (MH/ID), Physical Handicap (PH), and Autism.
The menstrual hygiene training to respond to the menstrual hygiene needs of girls with special needs attending Nakeel school was conducted between 8/12/2021 and 11/12/2021. The training took place at Nazareen in Kware where the ward representative for persons with disabilities and ScandiCare organised the training. The training was organised for the following target groups as explained in this report.
- Girls with special needs of various types attending Nakeel primary school in Kajiado North
- Home based girls with special needs in the region of Nakeel primary school
- Parents of the two target groups named above
- Menstruating Girls from the households of the girls with special needs
ScandiCare provided menstrual hygiene training to a total of 67 beneficiaries including girls and members of their households. The menstrual hygiene training conducted by ScandiCare Field Officers include a presentation of the challenges of puberty, the stigma associated with menstruation, the menstrual cycle, sanitary products commonly used by girls in and out of schools and their disadvantages, and an introduction to the Mina menstrual cup.
Like in other schools where ScandiCare has conducted the training, girls from Nakeel and their parents received the menstrual hygiene training and the distribution of the Mina cup with noticeable excitement registered during the two days of training. The cup can last for as long as 5 years, this comes handy for girls from low-income households with very limited ability to afford sanitary products for managing menstruation.
In addition to provision of the menstrual hygiene training, Scandicare distributed the Mina menstrual cup to a total of 76 beneficiaries. ScandiCare distributes the Mina menstrual cup to girls and their households to prevent possible cases of infections resulting from the sharing of the cup within households. The beneficiaries of the project come majorly from poor households and in line with the “do no harm principle” (the principle of avoiding exposing people to additional risks through actions undertaken within the context of a project intervention), ScandCare distribute the cup not only to the girls with special needs, but also to other menstruating members of their households.
The menstrual hygiene training and the distribution of the Mina cup to the target group continues in other schools.
Expenses:
