Nsanje district youth officer Gertrude Francisco has emphasised the importance of equipping girls with skills to make sanitary pads to address menstrual hygiene poverty.
She said this on Saturday at the end of a two-day training on sanitary pads at Nyamadzere Teacher Development Centre in the district.
Said Francisco: “We are empowering adolescent girls, both in school and out of school, to make reusable sanitary pads. This will help those in school not to drop out due to lack of sanitary pads while those out of school will make money after selling them.
“We have combined the initiative with others such as mental health, HIV and Aids and sexual and reproductive health rights. So, those trained will also train others.”
A participant Esther Tembenuka, 18, from Ntowe in Traditional Authority Ndamera thanked the council for the initiative which will lessen the burden of buying sanitary pads.
“The initiative will help us remain in school because we will not fail to attend classes due to lack of pads,” she said.
On her part, Margret Jafali, 17, from Nyamadzere Primary School, said the skills will help her make pads instead of relying on her parents to buy them for her.
“I am ready to train others on the same,” she said.
The council’s youth office is implementing the initiative in T/As Mlolo, Malemia and Ndamera with support from Unicef.
