The Survival of a disabled slum girl child in menstruation hygiene

The survival of a disabled slum girl child in menstruation hygiene management within this covid 19 pandemic

The lack of menstrual hygiene products in Uganda is still a disabling factor to education and well-being of the girl child. Girls are unable to manage it without the right products which has led them to drop out of school.

Now a disabled Girl child living in the slums faces far greater challenges during her menstruation periods where there is no access to clean and safe water in the communities coupled with the inability to buy sanitary pads. The nearest water source for her to be accessed is spring water channeled in the trench full of garbage, and most cases contains fecal wastes. The piped water is 200 shillings for 20 liters of which it’s difficult for her due to her poor conditions. Some cannot afford the paying for a jerrican also incases when they are living with family or guardian, because the priorities are set to finding food for the day.

In many of these communities, there is one community sanitation facility which is closed by leaders. So this has caused a lot of open defecation in the slums. The survival of a disabled girl child in this environment is threatened with infectious diseases that might be got more so in this Covid-19 pandemic. 

There a thousands of such reality cases in the slums of Uganda, affecting both women and girls with lack of access to clean and safe water during their menstruation periods. Lack of access to WASH services, is seen to be a major hindrance to having better health among the slum communities the poor urban settlements.

Joan Nabunya is a disabled girl who resides in Ggaba Katoogo living with her grandmother who is blind. She did not have a chance to go to school ever since when she was born because the family then could not afford it. Back at her house that she lives in with her blind grandmother, I find it is not any normal slum house made of mud and perhaps bamboo or mud bricks. They live in makeshift house made of wooden planks and iron sheet in its walls. Whenever it rains water floods in their small house and it brings fecal waste along from the nearby latrine they use with their neighbors. In these kind of situations, it becomes difficult to get clean and safe water.

The last 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it totally impossible for women and girls in slums. If families cannot even afford two meals a day and some can’t totally afford a single proper meal during this hard time, how can such families be in position to afford sanitary pads.

Substituting to survive menstrual cycles

Girls in slums have resorted to using clothes as substitutes for sanitary pads.  Menstrual hygiene routine is not just about cleaning your body but also making sure to use sterile and clean products, so as to avoid any such infections. The current circumstances have led to many girls and women using unsterilized or unclean materials of which many are probably not aware of this. Others who still have a chance to access pads, wear one pad for away too long & this is a risk, because a pad should be used at least 6-8 hours to avoid developing rashes & vaginal yeast infections.

Today things are so complicated, girls use old dirty clothes or totally go through these menstrual cycles with nothing to use but just trying to sit on soil or sand the all-day.  Others lock themselves in the house to avoid public embarrassment.

Overall the girls and women in slums can’t access safe clean water to clean themselves well or wash their hands well after changing whatever they have improvised with as sanitary pad. This has been found to cause yeast infections or Hepatitis B.

Recommendation

Joan Nabukenya a resident of Ggaba Katogoasks government to support the slum girl child and mostly the disabled ones with reusable sanitary pads during this lockdown because they can’t afford to buy them as well feeding themselves. There is also need for distribution of piped water in these settlements on a low subsidized cost where anyone can access it at a low rate.

As government is also struggling to contain Covid-19 pandemic, there is need to consider women menstruation hygiene, as they are being given food, it is important that sanitary pads are added too because the impacts of covid-19 are hitting girls and women the hardest.

With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for development interventions, the ideal is to attain universal access to WASH services by 2030. Every citizen of the world must have access to safe and reliable WASH services leaving no one behind.