Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc has donated sanitary packs to Liwaladzi Community Day Secondary School in Nkhotakota District as part of the Rise for Girls Programme, the company is implementing.
Speaking on Saturday during the handover, the company’s head of legal and corporate affairs Maureen Kachingwe said the programme seeks to address the challenges school girls face due to menstrual hygiene.
“We are reacting or responding to a need of helping girls who face challenges during their periods. Statistics show that some girls miss school or withdraw because of menstrual poverty,” she said.
Kachingwe said they have started implementing the project in some schools in Nchalo in Chikwawa and Blantyre.
She said: “The sanitary packs include pads and soap. This is the introductory period and we invested K100 million in the initiative.
“We want to help girls access sanitary pads and other products for their menstrual hygiene.”
The school’s head teacher Sajeni Chilambiko Kamanga said the donation came at the right time.
“Our girls were desperate for such support. You can see the excitement among the girls. In our budget, we do allocate funds towards the procurement of sanitary pads, but we could not afford to buy pads for all girls. “As a result, some girls dropped out due to menstrual poverty
