Padi Bora

It is evident that Team Kenya, a partner of Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre (ALIN), is doing this entire community more than just good. When i visited their offices in Ndhiwa, i was surprised! Have the privileged to read this for yourself and you will begin looking at things from a completely different window...

Padi is a Swahili word which means pad while bora means better. 

The project is about reusable cotton sanitary towels. The main objective of this project is to provide an alternative to the expensive disposable sanitary towels that a majority of the girls cannot afford due to the high poverty levels in the region.

The long term goal of the project is keeping the adolescent girls in school throughout the school going days. This is because a majority of girls tend to stay at home when they are having their periods because they lack an effective material to protect themselves during menstruation.

During the month of September, focus was put on creating awareness about the cotton reusable sanitary towels (Padi Bora). The awareness raising was carried out alongside puberty and reproductive health education. Free samples were given to a few girls. 

In addition, other samples were given to the teacher in charge of the girls in the schools to be kept for emergency in case a girl unexpectedly experiences her periods while at school, then she will not have to ask for permission to go home and lose out on education. The puberty and reproductive health education sessions indicated that a majority of the girls don’t have factual information regarding their sexuality. 

Interview with the Beneficiaries 

Arina as one of the partner school was chosen due to concerns over the number of girls who drop out of school before sitting for their first national exams. In fact, this is the only year that Arina Primary School has registered 3 girls for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams. A big number of girls drop out of school before reaching standard eight. Some of the girls are already mothers at tender ages, others have been forced to move in with new families after losing both parents, and some have been tormented by separation of parents and family conflicts. A majority of girls in this school come from poverty stricken families and thus have either resolved to survival sex or work for other people to earn income. These girls find it difficult to survive in school and hence resort to early marriages. In summary, these girls face the following problems:

• Lack of motivation as no girl in that school has ever reached standard eight. Poverty, killing the morale of studying due to predictable lack of secondary school fees
  Mockery by villagers who feel that girls are better off married than educated.
• Forced marriages, considering that many families depend on bridal wealth through dowry.
• Quite a number of girls stay at home during their monthly periods and hence miss out on school. Eventually, they drop out of school because they are embarrassed. 

We are going to have this project captured in video by 17th August 2011 and you will be able to hear from the beneficiaries. 

For details click http://www.teamkenya.org.uk/projects