Girls ‘hidden away’

P.E.I. groups helping Kenyan schoolgirls

Gaylene Smith still gets emotional as she recalls presenting Days for Girls kits to schoolgirls on the Kenyan Island of Mageta last February.

Smith, program co-ordinator with Mikinduri Children of Hope, said children in Kenya can’t afford extras.

Those include sanitary pads, she explained.

So when schoolgirls are on their monthly period, they are sent home from school. “They’re hidden away.” For the past year and a half, four community groups on P.E.I. have been making the Days for Girls kits for an international organization.

The kits include washable, reusable pads, hand soap and panties.

Smith said she delivered 450 kits during her visit to Mageta Island.

“It’s just like our kids on Christmas morning but better because our kids have so much, and they don’t,” she said in describing the smiles and the giggles when the Kenyan schoolgirls examined the kits.

“They don’t have any of this and, without it, they don’t get their education,” said Smith, noting girls miss about a week of schooling every month because of their menstrual cycle and they fall behind.

She said the presentation of the kits is also an opportunity to educate the girls about their bodies, their menstrual cycle, about pregnancy, about ‘no means no’ and about their rights.

“They’re staying in school and they have passion, then, to get educated and to move on and hopefully get the education we are hoping will change their life,” she said.