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Its a special day at the Igunga Primary School. Students are taking a class break
to welcome a group of young men and women.
We have our kit
which we normally give
as usual
and this kit has
the Green Girl Care Kit
which are pads, the sanitary towels
that we normally make them.
We are advising that they are useable.
Now, I am going to give you some lessons on how you can use them because
you must know how to keep them clean.
Alfred Kiboe is a member of a youth group
a bunge or parliament that visits schools here in
Kisumu in Western Kenya.
Together the youth teach the young girls how to use reusable sanitary pads.
They also give them buckets and soap to wash their dirty clothes and pads.
Many of Kenya's two and a half million primary school girls
either cannot afford or have no access to sanitary pads.
This means girls may miss as many as forty five days of school a year,
They also battle shame, embarrassment and ridicule.
Studies show that access to pads also means better fast participation
and greater concentration.
This bunge is a part of USAID's Yes Youth Can
a nationwide program that empowers Kenyan youth
to improve their lives and communities.
Across Kenya, more than five hundred thousand youth are now members of these
youth parliaments.
The goal is to have one million
bunge members
in at least fifteen thousand villages across Kenya.
The bunge members work in a small
coagulated narrow roofed workshop
making the sanitary towels from locally purchased materials.
Catherine knows well what the school girls are going through
Maurice Lavaya, one of the teachers
says he has notice a marked change in the girls' grades
since the bunge began working in the school.
Some girls
performance were very low,
but now with their regular coming to school due to the fact that
now they can have their sanitary towels
and be comfortable in school, the girls have improved.
According to Benson Munuvi,
areas local government representative
the benefits of educating a young woman extend to the whole community.
The femal education
it has created courage.
You know, educating a female child you have educated the whole family
thats how we belive in Africa.
The impact of a good education is something Charity has taken to heart.
Now that she is in school full time
Charity believes her dreams can now be realized.
and with the help of small piece of cotton,
Charity is one step closer to the skies.