By Ameria Nayebare and Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
MBARARA
Despite significant progress in the fight for gender equality and education for the girl child, menstrual hygiene and teenage pregnancy remain complex problems hindering girls’ education with deep-seated roots attributable to various factors, including historical biases, gender stereotypes, and limited access to sanitary towels.
While girls and women constitute a significant proportion of our population, their menstrual health often face less concern both from the government and individual people in our communities.
To Mariam Arinaitwe, this is a systemic issue that requires our attention and action. The 24-year-old employee with Nile Breweries says the harsh conditions are forcing young girls to run to old men for money which puts their lives at a risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies and affects the performance in schools.
“Many girls are trying to get provisions from men due to lack of basic needs as they try fit in the community and thus end up getting HIV and unwanted pregnancies, some are forced into marriage due to ignorance, poverty and greed for bride price by parents. Other girls lack school fees and other requirements regardless of their good performance which affects their concentration in classrooms and they end up failing in examinations, dropout of school. Some girls lack advice and mentorship, they end up acting weirdly and end up living miserably,” she said.
Although Arinaitwe blames the unresolved battle of girl-child education on poor menstrual hygiene and lack of basic needs, she says these are to a larger extent controllable factors.
Having been raised in a family with a humble background under the care of her grandmother in Butare Bushenyi district, the death of her father in her Primary Seven (P.7) was the most intense experience which later became a bless in disguise.
“I went through alot of challenges after joining secondary school, many the times I would report to school without sanitary pads, which was a big challenge to me,” Arinaitwe said.
It was that personal experience which inspired her to become a girl-child education advocate through promoting awareness on improved menstrual hygiene in her community in 2020.
“This concerned me to rise and be a voice to many voiceless girls that need safety,” she said.
A selfless young lady, in the year 2021, started up a Community Based Organization; Girls’ Safety Organisation, an initiative which helps young girls between 10-25 years in her home town and beyond through sensitising and advising them on maintaining menstrual hygiene and providing them with basic needs like sanitary towels, soap, scholastic materials and securing for them study bursaries.
“Most times girls are blamed for their failure in life but there are other factors that hinder their success too” says Mariam
She believes that with her initiative, she will be able to fight early pregnancies, early marriages, rising cases of rape and HIV/ AIDS among young girls, and also act as a go between for girl child and well wishers who may be willing to provide help to struggling girls.
Arinaitwe uses well wishers who solicit funds among themselves and little savings from her job to help young girls get quality education and life skills, providing support like sanitary towels and soap to maintain them in schools as well as improving livelihoods of teen mothers who are already out of schools.
As any personal-led charity, Arinaitwe says her organization often face financial hurdles and struggle to attract adequate funding. She calls for more funding from the government and other kind individuals such as girl-child activist groups to support her projects which she says investing in such organizations will significantly ripple positive effects in empowering women and girls and promoting advocacy, girl-child education, healthcare and capacity building opportunities specifically to the young women.
Arinaitwe says her immense dream is to create lasting change regarding promoting girl-child education and improving menstrual health in her community and beyond.
