 Meronica Ocola I'll let you introduce yourself Tell us what you do Karebo My name is Veronica Ocola I call myself menstrual hygiene advocate because I'm passionate about gachil empowerment and menstrual health Apart from that I'm working with Ministry of Health on a project called to Juleshane Tuna Juleshana on maternal health family planning sexual gender based violence and adolescence and abstinence So you go around the country teaching ladies and communities about all these things No, we have doctors gynaecologist cancelers standby so we work in form of a call center if you have a problem we have a toll free number you can always reach us anytime weekdays from 8am to 5pm and public holidays and we work from 9am to 3pm Apart from your job at the Ministry of Health which is a very good job congratulations on that maybe you can tell us where this journey began of being a menstrual hygiene advocate The journey began when I was in campus I used to be a student leader vice president and if you look at the cases I can refer to the case where a girl in Bomet County committed suicide because of due to lack of pads and also in Baringo County there was an incident that was brought even to the media where girls were messing out on going to school because of lack of sanitary pads So there was an opportunity and there was a gap to be filled in our society and communities So it did like a little research on how much girls lack sanitary towels and my research was on Nairobi slums majorly and they realized most of the girls were using rags, pieces of mattresses, tissue papers because they were ashamed to talk about it So I came up with a program that was called Kipa Girl in School that was in June 2019 when I was still in campus and it was tough starting you can just come up with a project and you don't know where to start where do you get the sanitary towels who are your audiences how do you know that this person lack sanitary towels So it came I met with a few friends who I shared the idea with them and they supported it So we planned for our first project where we were partnering with the local community leaders and we did our first project at Rarida constituency which was a successful job We partnered with the MP and Esther Pasarius came from Nairobi to Rarida which was quite supportive So what inspires you to do this menstrual health hygiene because there are so many other issues that you can deal with but why menstrual health hygiene what inspires you to wake up in the morning and be this person that you are I feel like I have the right information and it caused me nothing I feel like I have the right information to people who lack the right information for example during as I carry out the project I realized most of the girls they get their main source of information and menstrual health is from internet not forgetting that whatever is in the internet what applies to you during the effects that you find during your menstruation are different from mine but the internet will give you just general information so I measured on this and did a lot of research and I realized I have a lot of information at this post what if I help somebody who does not have this access to the information it caused me nothing and maybe you can tell us what menstrual hygiene is all about maybe to naskangatu jinana menstrual hygiene it's quite broad usually when I do my events I normally just teach how to generally keep clean sex education it's not just about them menstruation period you should also teach them how to change how often you suppose to change their parts because you realize if you overstay with your pads you are likely to get infections big east fangol also there are different types of pads sanitary towels those can react with your body and may not react with my body maybe you can give us your education kia say like how many so for example let's say for those who use rags because these are the most affected people you find that maybe the type of rug that you are using maybe it's overseas they want to use an overseas rags it gives you the friction in between your thighs and you lately to suffer itches and scratches within your thighs that is one thing immediately what I normally do during menstrual education is just general cleanliness during your menstruation and how you suppose to wash yourself during the menstruation and even generally past menstruation as ladies for example if you use the scented soaps it may affect your vagina so you see like such information they are pretty but they are lucky most ladies want to wear vaginal wash or whatever but you see some are bleaching agent you may end up bleaching your vagina without knowing so you see like they are pretty information but they are lucky so do you have like an organization that goes around the country teaching girls about all this yeah right now we have have partner with 5 friends and we registered the CBO called Semanami Organization and we are dealing with not just menstruation hygiene but we are also dealing with generally youth empowerment we are not sharing talents we have an upcoming academy so if you have a kid at home you can register her or he to our academy maybe you can tell us the structure of your organization how do you organize yourself because I don't think you wake up in the morning and decide today we are just going to you know teach people about menstrual hygiene how is the organization we normally have a calendar of activities which we follow up on so right now the upcoming events that we have is the menstrual hygiene day that is 28th of May right now what we are focusing on May generally it's a menstrual hygiene month so right now we are carrying campaigns on menstrual hygiene that is an example we normally have calendar of events and you have like areas where you prioritize to visit or watch your niche before I used to go across the country I used to partner with leaders but since we registered the CBO CBO is a community based organization so right now we are majorly based in Dagoritikon Nandu slums and how is the how are people receiving the information are they accepting it or shunning it away they are accepting it and they are quite grateful because I can say I have a lot of success stories and once you go to a location what do you do like on arrival or on a location first we do we have to prior to visiting a place you have to make arrangements you have to get the audiences you have to mobilize for the sanitary towns you have to get a team because you cannot do it alone you see like if I come to mentor you and you just say Veronica alone it's not enough but when I come with you and I come with another person you share your mind share my mind different stories it's quite encouraging actually I have to make arrangements on my team I have to make arrangements on how to mobilize the sanitary towns I have to make arrangements for the audiences and are you self funded or you get sponsorship from other people like I said we partner with friends and relations but most of the times we do contribute amongst ourselves and of all the things that you do from campaigns to mentorship to sex education what will you consider your strength in your organization menstrual hygiene so it's more of the education and teaching people empowerment and so far how many areas have you covered ok so far you can see I have covered around 21 schools across the country and in Nando Salon that we started last year we have hosted 6 events and during each event we always give people 3 packets of sanitary towels and underwears and also facemas and sometimes if we mobilize enough resources we give them unga and during your journey what would you say are some of the effects of low of having no information about menstrual hygiene ok I can say most girls they suffer ridicule from during their menses from their male counterparts ok I would appreciate each and every organization carrying out campaigns we have the hashtag of period positivity we have hashtag on end period share because we are making steps I can say for sure that where we were yesterday is different from where we are today so I can also say during our campaigns after talking to the girls we normally have even their parents calling back because you see the topics they accept education especially now that the students are at home the teenagers are at home as parents I think we need to talk to our teenagers about not just menstrual hygiene but also sex education teach them on how they can protect themselves from STIs prevention of HIV HPV you get I have a question on that on sex education so you teach your children on how to protect themselves from all these diseases and have protective sex right is it the first thing you teach you know these are teenagers so how to protect themselves or how to abstain teach your child how to abstain and as a mother I think not just a mother but even a parent you should be a friend to your teenage daughter or son talk to them about sex education because if you avoid it someone else will treat you on your behalf and what's the proper way of teaching about sex education like what information should be put out there first and foremost the first important step is to be a friend to your kids through that they will open up they will tell you even if they start experiencing changes they will let you know before they let somebody else know if I have a problem the first person who approaches my best friend be that best friend that your kid needs and once they open up you'll be able to advise them that if you do this these are the repercussions for your actions for as a matter of fact a teenager is not just ready for the repercussions of sex mentally, financially socially, emotionally so you should teach them abstinence that is the core thing but in a case where you cannot always run away from the truth you know your child is sexually active but you are avoiding the story you continue teaching abstinence and yet they are having sex so you see the exact cases teach them that even if they haven't protected sex and end up using the B2 they still have chances of getting STI HPB and HIV AIDS be open to your kid and let's not leave a lie if they are sexually active tell them the right thing to do and do you think kina is there is taking that step of okay now I'm commenting as a person not as an employee of my health and stuff I think as a country we are leaving a lie we are running away from the fact that our teenagers are having sex that's why we have the highest number of pregnancies in the country teenage pregnancies because we assume that legal age for sex is 18 years old then where do we get a 10 year old getting pregnant because we assume they are not having sex but they are having sex so to me I think it's high time we walk the conversation as a country and we don't run away from the truth because the reality is our teenagers are exposed to pornography, internet they have a lot of information at their disposal that you cannot control and what's the role of the parents in menstrual hygiene and sex education the role of a parent in menstrual health and sex education okay as a parent just as I told you once you are free with your kid you give them that environment where they can open up you should teach them even how to use sanitary towel you should teach them not to be ashamed that they are having periods you should teach them that period makes you a girl without that period you will also feel incomplete you should just make them and build their self esteem and what would you consider is good menstrual hygiene? a good menstrual hygiene is where you have access to sanitary towels whether free or not free but you can easily access sanitary towels you have the information on different types of pads we know that we have cups menstrual cups we have the reusable pads that you can use and wash we also have the tampons and we also have the wings the normal pads that everyone is using so you are supposed to know we have pads which are normally reacting to people which makes we perceive that period is acidic because there are certain pads which have gel that when you use you end up in Onashuaputini you should have such information and you know if you go for cheaper alternatives they may also affect you you may have urinary infections you may have yeast infections so if you have such information such a disposal you may have access to it then also how to wash yourself how to keep yourself clean as a girl so I believe that through this journey of being an advocate for menstrual hygiene you faced different challenges maybe you can name some of them the main challenges especially during my campaign when you are giving out pads you realize that we normally give 3 packets sometimes depending on how much we have mobilized but at least we always give 3 packets of sanitary towels and underwear and face mask which is just an added token so you realize most of the girls once you give them the 3 packets when they get back home they share them with their parents and sisters because you give me a sanitary towel and I don't have food how is it even helping me maybe how to wait for end month or maybe this month I can use one packet next month I cannot wait when come and see na cha kula so some they save them off that is a big challenge another challenge of first is mobilizing of resources you realize most of the times we partner with our friends and willing organizations so if I come to you to sponsor my event today you know I cannot come to you like every day so it needs a lot of networking a lot of energy commitment and if you are doing other things you also have to survive as a person you have to go to work it becomes a challenge but despite those challenges I am sure you also have something positive that makes you go on every day yeah the success stories that is what keep me going once the impact that I have made that is what keeps me going for example if I visited girls bands I feel satisfied I get satisfaction out of the impact so maybe as we wind up you can share a little bit of advice to a girl who is watching you right now or if you wanted to reach out to someone who wants to help you if someone wants to help you wants to reach out to you maybe you can share your social media handles where they can find you so to the young girls teenagers and even the girls of our age what I can tell you like if you have the information at your disposal never hesitate to share with your neighbour if you have an extra sanitarita you don't have to be reached to help you can help starting from your neighbour and to reach me out you can find me on Facebook Prerunikokola Twitter Prerunikokola ok thank you so much Prerunikokola for sparing your time for joining us in this important discussion I feel like menstrual hygiene is one of those things that we should know much forward and advocate for because it's something that concerns our body and without having a healthy body we can't do anything we can't even work or make money so thank you so much not only for joining us but for what you are doing to the society just before I went out I told you we are having a campaign especially right now there are a lot of cases of gender based violence you can always reach us out on a toll free number 0800 022722 ok maybe you can repeat that again so that people can get it ok 0800 722 022 ok thank you so much consultation is free and everything we offer is free of charge so that was Veronika who is an advocate for menstrual hygiene and she is doing great great work in the society by educating girls on the importance of menstrual hygiene so right about now we are going to go for a short break we can't even see Bandukam send it anywhere we are going to get back with a very interesting discussion from the one and only Kayesu don't forget to follow us on all our social media platforms at Y254 channel and at underscore 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