Her Education Matters Njenga: Failing Facilities Means Poor Menstrual Hygiene Management.

Having their first period is often very embarrassing for any girl. In Malawi this is made worse as they often do not have access to sanitary products nor access to adequate changing facilities.. Without sanitary products and access to private, clean and safe facilities to manage their menstrual hygiene,  the girls only recourse is to take this time away from school. 

This absenteeism eventually leads to girls dropping out from education as they fall behind; the Malawian Government’s 2023/24 survey on school drop-out rates discovered that around 28% of those not finishing their primary school education said that poor facilities was the main cause.

At Njenga Primary and Njenga Secondary Schools the lack of adequate facilities is also an issue for students:

A girl attending Njenga Secondary School said: “I have missed classes before because of my menstrual period, I don’t find classes to be comfortable and I always feel ashamed whenever I am in my menses, I normally wait until I am through”.

At Njenga Primary and Njenga Secondary Schools the facilities are minimal, with no changing rooms and limited toilets. The Head Teacher of Njenga Primary School gave us an overview of the facilities they have access to:

“At the moment, the condition of girls during the menstrual cycle is not good at all because we don’t have a proper changing room. We are just using a single toilet which is not conducive to girls as it is”

Think Malawi will fund the construction of safe, clean and modern toilets and changing rooms for the girls to use to manage their personal hygiene.

Below is pictured the location for the Primary School's changing rooms and the boys and girls toilets.

The construction of these facilities will be overseen by our Malawian partner organisation Green Vision and they will use eco-friendly building techniques. They will avoid cutting down trees for burning the bricks and reduce overall emissions from the conventional brick-making processes.

Any leftover construction materials will be utilised in construction repairs with the schools taking ownership of the maintenance of the facilities through their School Management Committees.

Below is pictured the site for the planned construction of the Secondary School’s changing rooms.

Alongside other measures it is targeted that this will reduce absenteeism by 60% at the schools and using surveys from students and teachers, feedback will be collected on the usability and impact of the new changing rooms and toilets.

To help provide the girls with a safe and dignified place to manage their menstrual hygiene please donate to our fundraiser Her Education Matters Njenga and help them stay in school and excel in education.

Join in our current fundraiser to help the children of Njenga Primary and Secondary Schools have a safe facilities to manage their menstrual hygiene management.

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