Kisauni teacher appeals for underwear donations for boys

Okoa Sasa Rescue Centre CEO Grace Odemba distributing menstrual cups at Kashani Secondary School in Kiembeni, Mombasa January 20, 2020. A primary school teacher in Kisauni is appealing to NGOs to supply school boys with underwear. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Her plea comes after it emerged that a number of the pupils from needy backgrounds cannot afford the garment. 
  • The Standard Seven class teacher at Kashani Primary School in Kisauni appealed to donors to intervene in the matter.

A primary school teacher is pleading with charitable organisations to give underwear to schoolboys just like girls are given sanitary towels.

This is after it emerged that some of the boys are needy children who cannot afford to buy them hence wear shorts only.

Ann Mugo, a teacher at Kashani Primary School in Kisauni, said some of the boys attend school without the essential clothing, thus the need for the organisations to donate underwear.

"We are grateful that the girls are being given sanitary towels. But if these organisations also supply boys with underwear, then they will have assisted those who cannot afford to buy them. Some of them are grownups and have ID cards," said Ms Mugo.

She was speaking after an NGO distributed sanitary materials to about 300 primary and secondary school girls.

MENSTRUAL CUPS

The teenage girls were also given menstrual cups.

The cups are an alternative to sanitary towels and can be reused, giving advantage to poor girls and allowing them to stay in school.

"This will not only help the girls to save money because their parents have fees to pay but it is also eco-friendly since it can be reused," said Ms Grace Odemba, the CEO of Okoa Sasa, a girls’ rescue centre.

She said many girls had been missing school for lacking sanitary towels.

The girls, a majority of whom were seeing the menstrual cup for the first time, were guided on how to use them.

"It might be new to them but we will enlighten them and we hope that, with time, they will get used to it," she said.

Ms Odemba said the cups have a lifespan of 12 years and the girls will use them until they complete their studies.

"They are rare to find and expensive in shops and so the girls cannot afford them. They are also portable and the girls can carry them with ease. We know this will really benefit them," she said.