There are many opportunities out there. Equally, there are many setbacks. We are where we are because we have intentionally refused to do the basics. We look further to look for answers for homegrown problems yet our rural hamlets are flowing with talents and unexploited energies. We are blinded by a certain strain of lethal paternalism. We are our own enemies.
Our girls drop out of schools because they lack sanitary towels. As a result, this has negatively impacted on their general literacy ranking, and by extension, on the social and economic growth of women. On the social front, we have ended up creating a group that feels undermined, and with no say; one that lives in pain for being born "different".
I have heard many stories of school girls who get trapped by sex predators because they (girls) wanted cash to purchase sanitary towels and other necessities. This problem is real. They end up getting impregnated hence giving rise to another generation of poor, vulnerable people. On top of this rests that ever-present risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections.
Media reports show that currently sanitary pads usage in Kenya stands at 35%. This means that many Kenyan women either can hardly afford this necessity or have no clue about it. Still, they could be using other life-threatening means to keep this monthly thing under control.
Other sources indicate that about 50% of girls living in Kenyan slums engage in transactional sex so as to get money for sanitary pads. Others stay away from school, visiting friends or even talking to their close relations to avoid embarrassment from bloodstained clothes.
The Kenya government sanitary towels provision program, though noble, is too little an effort to meet the needs of all Kenya's girls and women. While the government could be willing to do more, the huge amount of resources needed to materialize this, is out of its reach. The truth of the matter is, the state is unable to fully intervene.
But looking at the level of organization, and pragmatism espoused by Kenya's women makes me optimistic. They make me believe that we - the people - can actually do this sanitary thing on our own and allow the State to focus on other urgent national needs.
Now, couple this pragmatism with the material poverty tormenting our people and you get an urgent need to empower these focused women. Readings on community empowerment, and anti-poverty experiments tell us that real progress pops up when people - the target groups - buy the idea destined to benefit them and become its co-implementers. This is contrary to the workings of a majority of our government agencies and their non-governmental partners.
Despite their elevated status most of the people managing these agencies still cling to the philosophy of 'give-and-never-train'. Evidently, these chaps abhor thinking hard. I am dead sure if they did, they would embark on mass training of people. They would pick that long route of educating and uplifting, and not the shorter one tinged with distribution-ism and short-term praise-singing.
By holistically responding to this sanitary problem, we will end up uplifting many families, and in turn kick poverty out of our borders.
This is what I propose: tap into existing women groups, train their members, provide them with sewing machines and seed money, bring in cooperative gurus to share their knowledge on savings and group investments, link these women with school committees, and voila you will have a super machine that will supply those sanitary towels at village-friendly prices.
For starters, a look into Kenya's poverty ranking will prove helpful.
What if we roll out this plan in northern frontier counties? Lodwar, Kapenguria, Marsabit, Isiolo, Maralal, Wajir, Garissa, Mandera towns..., (in my estimation) have more sanitary-towel-less women than any other place in Kenya.
There is no reason for this condition to persist. We have all the tools to make things work.
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