Lotome Primary school pupils receive free sanitary pads to fight absenteeism
Godfrey Ojore
Among the hygiene related problems in Katakwi primary schools is lack of pads by the girl child during menstruation.
“There is high drop out of girls from school in the district due to lack of sanitary pads for girls,” Damali Asekenye the District Community Development Officer said.
She also attributed this problem to lack of knowledge among the parents on how to handle girls when they start their menstruation.
She appealed to school administrators to create innovations towards the making of local pads to help girls from poor families.
“We shall continue loosing girls from school if we don’t think twice. You need to create avenues of bringing parents on board on this matter,” Asekenye advised.
Asekenye was speaking during a one day training of head teachers and teachers from 15 primary schools selected by Water Aid to champion issues of water, hygiene and sanitation.
Poor hygiene in most schools was also attributed to the fact that most schools were built in sub-counties that were previously housing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
“Although most IDPs have left the camps, hygiene is still a problem because the few people still in these centers make the latrines and the shelters of the schools dirty,” the District Education Officer Katakwi Angella Atim Emudong, said.
Atim named some of the schools that were built in the centers that formerly housed IDPs as Omasia, Ngariam, Aketa primary schools among others.
“In these schools the pupil to latrines ratio is so high because many of the camp dwellers use the same facilities,” she said.
Atim accused the camp dwellers for making the latrines dirty by soiling them and at the same time urinating on top.
“I pray Water Aid equips children in the 15 chosen schools with skills to smoke the latrines among other things,” Atim said.
The participants agreed to form health clubs in their respective schools to foster issues of sanitation for both school and the community.
“I hope to start involving my children to do charity work for the community. The project is very good and I pray it will create great impact among the pupils and teachers,” John Okot the headmaster of Akoboi primary school said.