We partnered with NGO Huru International to distribute sanitary towels and offer sexual and reproductive health education to 30,000 teenage girls in Kilifi, Siaya and Murang’a counties. We committed KES 22.5 million to improve menstrual hygiene among teenage girls as part of Safaricom’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
The programme also helped create awareness among 10,000 adolescent boys on menstruation, sexual reproductive health and life skills and enable 57 community-based mentors to support the adolescents.
Statistics by Procter and Gamble indicate that 65% of women and girls in Kenya cannot afford sanitary pads while 42 % of school going girls have never used sanitary pads. Most of them seek unhygienic homemade alternatives such as rags, pieces of mattress, blankets, tissue paper and cotton wool.