Ending Period Poverty in Malawi

ENDING PERIOD POVERTY IN MALAWI Many girls in Malawi stay home from school or drop out due to menstruation. For young girls in Malawi, puberty often leads to school dropouts, simply due to a lack of sanitary materials during menstruation. For the few girls who attend school, they miss school around five days a month due to menstruation, and this negatively impacts their school performance.

To improve the well-being of girls, The Salvation Army in the UK have provided funding for a Clean Water and Sanitation program in Malawi. This project increases access to clean water for hygiene and improves sanitation facilities in schools and within the girls’ communities.

Within the schools, health clubs are formed where girls are encouraged to share ideas and information about general hygiene including menstruation, early marriage and pregnancies. This is done through motivational talks, drama performances and discussion.

Task force teams called ‘Mother Groups’ are trained to be able to share and facilitate open discussions on the previously considered taboo issues of puberty and menstruation as well as sexuality.

In all of the schools that this project has targeted, special menstruation rooms are included in the toilet design.

Such rooms provide girls with privacy to change their sanitary wear as well as a room where they can take a bath and also access some clean sanitary products in case their period start during their school hours.

Mphatso Mwautwa, a 15-year-old pupil at Kakoma Primary School, shared the difference the project has made:

‘Before the toilets were constructed, we used to go to the bush and feared for our safety, we had no privacy or comfort during our periods. Now we have a safe and clean place for us to use. This makes the girls more confident and we are able to concentrate in school.’

The head teacher of Kakoma Primary School, Mr Absalom Shora, shared that there has been great improvement since the school sanitation was improved. He said, ‘The school has enrolment of 1,335 pupils and given the state of the old toilets sanitation and hygiene was a problem at this school. I am glad that this has now been resolved.’