YOUTH HEALTH TALKS

I'm not sure quite how the government came to the following arrangement, it still baffles
me, but here's the story. My school is in a zone of about 20 schools. Of these 20, they
decided to fund a health project for just 8 of those schools. The project included free
health talks (HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, periods, etc) for students, which included the talk,
counselling and free resources for each student at the conclusion of the presentation. Great
program..yes..slightly unfair that less than 50% of students received the information..
yes. Doesn't quite add up to me!


So, as a result of this and after consulting with my school principal, myself and another
volunteer arranged to go to the 12 schools that missed out on the free health talks and
offer them ourselves, free of charge. We have hour long sessions for girls aged 12+ and
half hour sessions for boys aged 12+ (girls get longer because we talk about periods for half an hour). This has been underway for about a month now, and we are receiving really great feedback from the schools.


We cover three main areas, each which I have a fair bit to comment on myself. The first is
about the menstrual cycle...periods. We only cover this with the girls..I wonder why haha.
For girls back home in Aus, or for any in a first world country, getting your period is..
well..annoying. Really only annoying as we have full access to the necessary items such as
sanitary pads, painkillers, etc. Here in Kenya, the girls have none of the above. They use
anything they can find..and when I say anything..this usually means it has been used and
discarded...old rags, old mattresses, school uniforms, etc. It is a huge problem as many
girls are forced to stay home and miss days of school each month because they have their
periods and nothing to use for it. Suddenly annoying seems ok.

We introduce the girls to re-usable sanitary pads. Ew..right..it's what I thought when I first
heard about them..genius it actually is. The pads are sewn by a local women's group at a
resource centre (thus when purchased, it supports these women) and are fantastic. There is
a section that buttons up around the undies and a removable rag (or whatever you chose to use) that is used to absorb everything. The girls simply remove the used rag, wash it and replace
it. They cost about the equivalent of $1 per girl. So far we have handed out about 200
pads to girls in two different schools. It was like they were receiving a TV or tickets
to the grand final, the smiles on their faces were priceless..pretty awesome. I have
uploaded lots of pictures of the girls from my primary school with their pads so the photos
will hopefully make more sense now!!

We then talk about STIs. At school, the acronym ABC is drilled into the kids (ABSTAIN, BE
FAITHFUL, USE A CONDOM). Great idea in theory, not so much in practice. The majority of
kids we talk to (keep in mind they are 12, 13, 14 and 15) are already sexually active.
At the end of the presentation, we do an anonymous question/answer box where the kids
write questions and then we answer them..SO many questions about STIs, what to do, etc etc.
It was a scary realisation for myself..not that they are sexually active, as I expected that,
but their complete lack of knowledge about STIs. I hope that our talk has increased their
knowledge base a little more.

The final section of out talk, the most exciting part of the talk for the kids..based on their
reactions..is the section on protection. Condoms. We talk about them, how to use them,
why we use them, what they prevent, what happens if they break, everything..and then we
do a demo and get a few kids to have a go also up the front. This is a common topic that
gets kids back home going crazy, let me tell you, it's no different here. They love it!

Both the students and teachers have been really receptive to our talks. Most schools are able
to afford to subsidise the pads for the girls, but some schools are just sooo poor that we
are buying the girls. We are supporting the poorer schools who are unable to support their own
children - here's an example of one such case. On Thursday we went off to a school to do a talk.
Most schools are either on or close to the main road..probably most importantly because the main
road provides access to food and resources that communities cannot. Thursdays school was a half
hour motor bike road on tiny, wet, muddy, bumpy red dirt path. It was SO far away..and this
is from where I live, which is very rural to begin. The school is inaccessible when it rains, which
practically accounts for half the year. Meaning the kids and their families have no access to resources outside of their community..things that can be grown int heir fields or stockpiled during the dr season. The school is small in population, with about 40 in each class. The classroom ground is a floor of uneven dirt, they don't have the money or resources to cement their floors. There are no windows, and have no access to running water, nothing. Imagine having your period out there! We are re-visiting the girls on Thursday to hand out their pads and to show them how to sue them, it should be fun.

So that is another project I am involved in out here in Kenya. I have been using some of the
money that I raised to help support the schools and kids in need..I will actually write a
fundraising blog soon :). I really feel that the talks are helping, even if each kid takes
away one thing from the talk, I will be happy. It's so interesting comparing the knowledge
of our kids back home to the kids in the rural villages here in Kenya. One thing has been
firmly cemented in my mind - kids are kids no matter what country you are in.







Hope you enjoyed reading again and you are all well and enjoying the lovely weather I keep hearing
all about:)

Lots of love from Kenya,

Lucy xxx.