Teachers and community members in Traditional Authority Phambala in Ntcheu District are making sanitary pads to keep girls in school.
The initiative is one of the interventions aimed at addressing menstrual hygiene among girls in the area.
In an interview on Wednesday, a community member Jackson Benson said they learned to make pads under World Vision Malawi’s sponsorship programme.
He said: “Menstrual poverty is one of the factors that affect girls’ education. The situation is even more critical in rural areas where most parents live below the poverty line.
“As a result, girls who go to school often shun classes during their menses. Since they cannot afford to buy a sanitary pad, they resort to staying home until their menstruation period is over.”
Benson said in 2023, World Vision Malawi also empowered mother groups, teachers and learners with skills to make reusable pads. Gertrude Kabondo, a teacher at Ntonda Primary School, leads 25 girls in making sanitary pads.
She said her job extends to teaching the girls about menstruation hygiene, the very thing their parents might not teach them due to taboo considerations.
Said Kabondo: “I facilitate the making of pads among mother groups, parents and learners. There are 25 girls [Standard 7] that I work with. I teach them about menstruation, making pads and how to use them.
“The initiative is helping to improve class attendance among girls. In the past, girls were not coming to school because they had no pads.”
She said they received materials from World Vision.
“We formed a club to make the pads and pass down the skills to new members,” said Kabondo.
Ntonda Primary School Mother Group chairperson Alice Phambala thanked World Vision for the initiative
