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Through the expansive hilly arid terrain of Kinango in Kwale County, young girls walk from school to their homes for lunch under the scorching sun. Their quest for education is their only hope for a brighter future out of the poverty-stricken region.
Despite the will and determination to stay in school, the lack of sanitary pads for girls during menses is a huge challenge that robs them of hours of study - affecting their performance. Some of the girls are forced to depend on their boyfriends, mostly boda-boda youths to get money to buy sanitary pads while some use unhygienic ways such as rags to contain the menses.
According to Mary (not her real name), a student at Nzovuni Mixed Secondary School, most of the girls in her class lack sanitary towels. Some of her friends depend on their boyfriends to buy them sanitary towels.
Mary is among the 130 girls from the school who received sanitary pads from LM Foundation after they sought help from the foundation. "When we didn't have them, we were struggling and some of my friends even depended on their boyfriends to buy for them," she said.
According to LM Foundation CEO, Lucia Musau, over 65 per cent of girls in Kenya cannot access sanitary pads and over one million girls miss four days of class due to lack of pads.
