About 15,000 rural-based school-going girls in Uganda are yet to receive pads, petty Coats, and knickers from the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education has announced that it has partnered with the Global Fund and is finalizing plans of distribution
Daniel Amanyire, the Assistant Programs Officer in the gender unit at the Ministry of Education says the 7 billion Shillings project will be piloted in 49 districts which are thought to be the most vulnerable in Uganda.
He says the districts were handpicked after they developed a tool using the national demographic data.
Amanyire says 12 schools will be selected in each district and only 25 girls in each of the schools will benefit from the donation.
Initially , the Ministry of Education had planned to distribute only Pads to school-going girls but that has since changed following research showing girls were going to school half-naked because they couldn’t afford to purchase them.
Girls in rural areas are forced to use other options that include rags, toilet paper, newspapers and cotton wool, tree leaves some even sit in the sand for days until their menstrual flow stops during their menstruation making majority either miss or drop out of school.
