Siaya Strategic Assembly (SSA), a community-based organization has launched a pad bank at Nyawita secondary school in West Sakwa ward Bondo Sub County to increase access to free sanitary pads by school going girls.
SSA patron Mr Ochieng Ajulu said the organization decided to establish a pad bank at a school in West Sakwa because of high teenage pregnancy rate in the ward.
According 2024 Kenya Health Information Systems data, teenage pregnancy remains high (21%) in Siaya County while West Sakwa wards tops the thirty wards in Siaya with 828 teenage pregnancy cases.
Ajulu observed that lack of pads has contributed significantly to rising cases of teenage pregnancies in the ward adding that increase of access to pads will avert incidences where the young girls are sexually exploited by men.
