About 20% of girls in high schools in the bateyes and sugar communities of Monte Plata lose between two and three days of classes a month As for menstruation due to lack of access to sanitary towels.
This was revealed by a study carried out by the Women’s Empowerment Initiative, a project of the US non-governmental humanitarian aid organization, Batey Relief Alliance (BRA), which is run in collaboration with the Maternal and Child Health Program (MCH).
The research explains that another 4.6% of students are missing four or more dayssa monthly teaching because of the difficulty they find in finding this personal hygiene product.
To obtain data from the said study conducted between May and July this year, they surveyed 716 students from 22 secondary schools in rural areas of this province.
The president-founder of BRA, Dr. Ulrick Gaillard, stated that of the 716 students who answered the survey, 51.2% were females and 48.8% were males, and that of the corresponding amount of females, about 367 equivalent to 53.3%, they responded they do not have access to sanitary towels when they need them and 63.6% reported that it is difficult to find products for menstruation.
Exteriorize that when male students were investigated “If girls have to go to school during their menstrual period”, 65.2% of young people who completed the survey responded that “They have to stay home”, Of the 400 students, most revealed that they learned about their mothers ’menstruation (42%), followed by their teachers (23%).
The founder of Batey Relief Alliance pointed out that 15.3% of the boys revealed that no one has instructed them in the subject of the period.
“In 2018, Batey Relief Alliance launched the BRA Women’s Empowerment Initiative, an intervention focused on community development through a holistic platform that provides training and micro-loans to women and girls, complemented by the access to maternal and child health, nutrition, drinking water, primary care and HIV, medicines, multivitamins and preventive health education, thus promoting the 2030 agenda through the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal number 5 and Gender Equality “, added Dr. Gaillard.
He stressed that to date “this project has distributed micro loans to more than 500 women living in the parishes of Monte Plata to develop their micro agricultural and business projects, as promoters of community health and essential services so that they can achieve the economic stability, combating gender-based violence and developing their homes and communities. “