Major fast moving goods (FMG) company Procter & Gamble (P&G) has said it has found a way to tackle school absenteeism in Kenya – free sanitary pads.
The company is planning to reduce school absenteeism among girls in Kenya by providing more than 790,000 pads through its Always Keeping Girls in School Programme. The program will see over 12,000 primary school girls receive a year’s supply of Always sanitary pads, underwear and education booklets.
The initiative started in 2006 and since then, the Procter & Gamble’s Always Keeping Girls in School Programme has reportedly helped keep over 100,000 Kenyan girls in school. This was partly in response to a study conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation, which revealed that 500,000 girls in Kenya miss at least four days of school every month as they are unable to afford sanitary pads and do not always understand the changes their bodies are going through.
Always Brand manager, Ms. Ivy Kimani, says, “As a company we continue to invest in not just providing the girls with free sanitary pads but we go a step further and are now providing them with underwear as well as lifeskills through our mentorship program. This holistic approach we have found provides us with great results for example last year we ran the program in over 70 schools all of which reported zero pregnancies during that period.”
