KIU, Western Campus – KIU Western Campus She Decides peer educators and student leaders have held a virtual discussion about the effect of COVID-19 on the menstrual hygiene of the girl child.

The discussion was aimed at discussing the challenges girls face in their homes as regards their menstrual hygiene due to COVID-19 and looking for solutions to address these challenges.

Some of the major challenges noted were that there is prioritization of resources in most families to buy necessities like food, which leaves girls without appropriate sanitary items, inadequate supply of clean water, reduced access to menstrual hygiene management information and lack of knowledge and skills by girls to make reusable sanitary pads.

Oscar Gumisiriza, the team leader She Decides – KIU WC, said that girls were at risk of infections due to poor menstrual hygiene.

“Girls can get Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs), Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs) and other related infections because of the less concern that has been given to their menstrual health,” Gumisiriza said.

The team resolved that there should be intervention and improvement on the gaps within KIU Western Campus regarding menstrual hygiene. 

They pledged to use student social media platforms to publicize menstrual hygiene management, hold online educational talks on student communication platforms and organize orientation programs on empowering the girl child with Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) information.

Picture credit: TheirWorld