dc.description.abstract | Introduction: Research and advocacy efforts are focusing on menstrual hygiene management as a major factor in retention of girl child in school especially in poor resource settings. Plan International Uganda is supporting training of menstrual hygiene management and use of low cost innovation of using reusable menstrual pads in selected sub counties and schools in Buyende district. The organization hopes this will be replicated to the entire district with time which needs to done based on evidence- based information.
Objective: To assess knowledge and up-take of Re-usable Menstrual Pads (RUMPs) among school girls in Bugaya S/C Buyende district so as to scale up use of RUMPs in (MHM).
Method: This was cross-sectional study conducted among primary school girls in ten purposively sampled Schools which received a menstrual hygiene training from Plan International Uganda. Bugaya Sub-county, Buyende district. Quantitative data was collected using semi structured standardized questionnaires and analysed using Stata version 13.0. Qualitative data was collected using key informant interview guides and analysed using thematic content analysis technique. Results were presented in form tables, graphs and pie charts.
Results: Most of the respondents 282(74.2%) were aged between 10 – 14 years and 55.0% correctly defined menstruation. Majority 211(55.5%) of the respondents used disposable pads, which are bought 297(72.9%) by their parents. Most of the respondents 261(68.6%) could not make homemade reusable menstrual pads while (59.4%) of those who knew lacked raw materials for making pads. 90% had boreholes as water source. Only one of the ten schools had clean latrines at the time of the study and none of the schools had facilities for SMM disposal at the time of study.
Conclusion: The study found out that primary school girls in Bugaya sub-county, Buyende district were knowledgeable about sanitary menstrual materials used albeit some challenges largely relating to limited and unhygienic sanitary facilities of the school and parental support. Low cost home-made sanitary menstrual materials interventions for poor girls cannot be implemented smoothly | en_US |