In partnership with the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS), Centenary Bank has provided over 500 re-usable sanitary pads to girls in the Kampala district as part of the ”Keep-A-Girl-In-School” (KAGIS) initiative launched by URCS in March 2019.
KAMPALA | NOW THEN DIGITAL — A partnership between Centenary Bank and the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) has seen the donation of over 500 re-usable sanitary pads to girls from vulnerable communities in the Kampala district as part of the Keep-A-Girl-In-School (KAGIS) initiative introduced by the URCS in March 2019.
- Schools that will benefit from KAGIS include St. Ponsiano Primary School and St. Mary’s Primary School – Kibuye.
- The KAGIS program ties in with a Menstrual Health Management initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Education and Sports that emphasizes the plight of girls who miss school because they do not have sanitary pads to use during their monthly menstrual cycle.
- Robert Kwesiga, Secretary-General of the Uganda Red Cross Society, thanked the bank for supporting the cause of keeping more girls in school through sensitization and the provision of pads and for partnering with the Red Cross.
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St. Ponsiano Primary School and St. Mary’s Primary School – Kibuye are among the beneficiary schools.
KAGIS is part of a Menstrual Health Management initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Education and Sports which highlights the plight of girls who miss school due to a lack of sanitary pads to use during their monthly menstrual cycle.
Mr Robert Kwesiga, Secretary-General of the Uganda Red Cross Society, expressed his gratitude to Centenary Bank for their support of a humanitarian cause to keep more girls in school through sensitization and the provision of pads, and for partnering with the Red Cross to do so.
“KAGIS is part of the Uganda Red Cross Society Health and Social Service Agenda under Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Interventions – which plays a crucial role around key issues such as health, education, protection and security of women and adolescent girls, both in the emergency and in the development context,” he said.
Executive Director of Centenary Bank, Joseph Balikuddembe, said the bank is honoured to work with the Uganda Red Cross Society to make a positive impact on the lives of girls from vulnerable communities.
Research conducted by the Uganda Red Cross in 2019 indicates that menstruation presents several challenges to adolescent girls and young women, especially young women who are attending school.
These include the following.
- Many girls lack prior knowledge about menstruation and sometimes get scared and worried about who to speak to and this leaves them with a vacuum that brings mental breakdown.
- Social norms may lead women and girls to feel that menstruation is dirty, shameful or unhealthy and this restricts them from school attendance and participation in games.
- Without access to good menstrual materials and private toilets or washrooms for changing, girls and women may not want to go far from home. Girls and women may not attend a school or go to the market. As a result of lack of access to hygienic sanitary wear, girls and women have resorted to using inappropriate materials such as rugs torn from their old clothes, papers, pieces of old mattress form, leaves and in some cases in the rural communities, being housebound to sit over a hole dug in the middle of their mud floors till the menstrual flow ends.
- School going girls who get blood on their clothes are often teased by teachers, boys or other girls and this has been reported as a significant cause of school dropout for the girl child.
