By Nellie Nyirenda

Blantyre, June 12, Mana: Youth Coordinating Agency in Development (YOCADE) is from July this year set to construct changing rooms and toilets in order to improve menstrual hygiene among adolescents at Mapazi and Mpumbe schools in Mapazi Education Zone in Blantyre rural.

YOCADE Project Manager, Mervis Chitika, said close to 50 percent of girls had dropped out of school in the area due to lack of sanitary facilities.

Construction of the facilities is expect to benefit nearly 1,800 adolescents learners each year.

“Direct beneficiaries of this project are adolescent girls aged nine to 19 within the selected schools. The project aims at promoting girls’ education by improving access to menstrual hygiene facilities which the schools lack,” she said.

The project will also include training sessions on menstrual hygiene management for mother groups and other school structures at Mapazi and Mpumbe schools.

According to the Project Manager, YOCADE will additionally purchase two sewing machines to support local production of menstrual kits using readily available materials.

Mapazi Primary School Headteacher, Anne Malinga, expressed gratitude over the intervention saying construction of change rooms and toilets will be helpful especially to girls.

She, therefore, expressed hope that menstrual hygiene management will help keep learners in school thereby reducing dropout and absenteeism rates.

YOCADE, which was registered in 2010, operates under three thematic areas of education including early childhood development and girls' education, health with focus on sexual and reproductive health rights, mental health, and human rights on child and minority rights.

The local NGO, which will partner with other stakeholders, will implement the project with £10,000 support from Hilden, a United Kingdom charitable fund.