JIWUNDU SECONDARY SCHOOL IN SANITARY PADS BONANZA

FQM Trident Limited has donated sanitary pads valued at K49, 000 to all the 210 girls at Jiwundu Secondary School in Kalumbila in a bid to support girl education,

Meanwhile, the min ing firm will soon dis tribute more reusable sanitary pads which will benefit about 4, 000 girls in the surrounding communities under the Educating and Develop ing Girls Empowerment (EDGE) initiative.

FQM’s community affairs manager Joseph Ngwira in a speech read by public relations spe cialist Miriam Harmon, said the programme is aimed at ensuring that no girl misses a period of class.

Mr Ngwira said the mining company re mains committed in supplementing Govern ment’s efforts in provid ing quality education.

He said through the EDGE initiative, the company wants to see a reduction in absentee ism, more girls coming on board to utilise the free education oppor tunities, reduction in school drop outs as well as higher performance by girls in schools.

“Furthermore, this initiative is targeted at the general public to raise awareness and de mand action because we believe that it is not an individual female prob lem but a social matter,” said Mr Ngwira.

He said girls lose con fidence and reduce their chances of performing better in school due to lack of appropriate or adequate sanitation fa cilities especially in rural areas.

And Mr Ngwira dis closed that 663 local students have benefitted from scholarship pro gramme which includes 322 tertiary level students.

He said there are about 273 active schol arships from primary to tertiary levels of which 40 percent of the stu dents are girls.

Meanwhile, Kalumbi la District Commission er Brenda Sankisa said the initiative will help in distigmatise the issue and assist girls to break their silence on the oth er sex and health issues.

She said in most cas es, girls stay away from school for about three weeks in a term due to menstrual activities which disadvantages them.