BY RIMILIAH AMANDU
MARACHA DISTRICT: Ms Viola Orideru, a resident of Oruji village emotionally narrates a story of neglect, pain and shame that continues to torment her many years into marriage life.
It all started with the failure of her parents to provide her basic needs while at school, as years passed, changes that needed a response from her parents occurred on her body but they never cared, she lived in that neglected state until one person who she thought was god-sent appeared in her life.
She says the man, who later became her husband was willing to provide most of her basic needs including pads to cater for her menstrual periods.
“Initially I disliked the love proposals by my boyfriend but when I started to face changes in my body due to menstruation, I listened to him because he provided everything for me including soap, sanitary pads and clothes” she narrates.
It didn’t take long before what at first appeared to be genuine help ended in marriage for the 16 year old Orideru, she unfortunately later dislocated her hip during the delivery of her premature featus of seven months due to young age, a damage that has remained paramanent.
Unfortunately, many girls in her native Maracha district continue to walk the same dark path she went through with the associated risks glaring at them.
The menstrual hygiene in schools is one such enormous challenge that education authorities are struggling to overcome.
“In many occasions, the girls go to school without sanitary pads because the poor parents don’t provide basic needs, when their menstruation period starts, they become uncomfortable thinking the boys will bully them in case the blood stains appear on their clothes making them to simply abandon school to avoid being stigmatized” Mr Edward Andruga, the district education officer (DEO) narrates.
He says, as a result of the abandonment of school by the girls due to failures to cope with the physical development of the body, their numbers are usually far less than the boys in most upper primary classes especially in the rural schools.
Asked how such a grim situation can be improved, Andruga implores the parents to adequately play their roles of providing the basic needs for the girl child. He also appeals to teachers to offer guidance and counselling for the girl child so as to cope with the pressures of their body changes.
The DEO while acknowledging the poor funding under Universal primary education (UPE) to schools urges Non-Governmental organizations (NGO’s) to support schools so as to save the girl child.
“After dropping out of school, the teenage girls opt to do petty businesses like selling ground nuts to try to acquire what they need but in these evening markets, they are exposed to boys and older men who lure them into having unprotected sex which ruins their future” he explains.
However, the senior woman teacher of Baria primary school Ms Grace Namutono says they minimize the challenges in schools by offering sex education for both boys and girls to fight stigma and providing basic sanitary materials for emergency cases during school hours.
“We provide the girls with pads when their menstruation begins abruptly at school, we give a piece of cloth to wrap as they go to the changing room or the bathing shelters, they are also dressed using a new under wear bought by the school” Ms Namutono retorts.
Her counterpart Emilly Opiru of Robu primary school in Kijomoro primary says they as administrators have to sometimes force the negligent girls into maintaining good hygiene.
“when one doesn’t change the pads and bathe regularly during the menstruation, they smell, if we notice it because the smell of the blood is distinguished, we call the girl or do general checkup, we also tell them to approach us in order to receive help promptly than remaining at large or sneak home without receiving the mandatory care” Ms Opiru says.
Maracha district health officer Dr Paul Onzubo says the stingy smell from the menses comes because the blood that is out of the vessels is offensive and is decomposed by the numerous germs in the virginal cavity.
He says the failure to maintain menstrual hygiene is dangerous for the girls because it will act as a conduit for over 50,000 germs in the vaginal cavity to penetrate into the uterus since the cervix is open during the menstrual period.
“The germs may damage the womb to give chronic pains and sometimes cause infections in the fallopian tubes which can lead to infertility when inflammations or scars block the tubes” Dr Onzubo explains.
