By Norbert Mao
Unyama Primary School in Unyama Sub-County, Gulu District, has received a new girls’ changing facility worth UGX 49.1 million shillings, aimed at improving menstrual hygiene management and reducing school dropout among adolescent girls.
The facility was handed over to the school on Wednesday, October 14th, by the Young Women Initiative for Development, YWIDE, a women-led, grassroots community-based organization located in the Acholi sub-region that empowers war-affected girls, young women, and youth with support from Mundo Cooperante, in collaboration with Girls Not Brides.
Mundo Cooperante is a Spanish international non-governmental organization (INGO) established in 1998 that works in development and humanitarian aid to eliminate poverty, reduce inequalities, and empower marginalized women and children while Girls Not Brides is an international non-governmental organization working to end child marriage worldwide and support married girls
The YWIDE initiative targets girls aged between 10 and 16, a group considered vulnerable to absenteeism, school dropout, child marriage and teenage pregnancy, particularly where schools lack adequate menstrual hygiene facilities.
Speaking during the handover ceremony at the School, Richard Lapoti, the Programs Manager at YWIDE, said the organization became concerned about the link between poor menstrual hygiene and girls dropping out of school.
Lapoti said YWIDE’s interventions began with class-to-class sensitization at the school in 2023, where they identified menstrual hygiene as one of the challenges affecting girls’ participation in education and the organization subsequently secured funding and constructed the first girls’ changing facility at Angaya Primary School in 2024.
According to Lapoti, the first facility at Angaya Primary School contributed to an increase in girls’ enrollment, prompting YWIDE and its partners to support the construction of a second facility at Unyama Primary School to meet the growing need.
He said construction of the second facility was officially launched on June 18th, 2025, and has now been completed and handed over to the school.
Lapoti said the organization intends to extend the intervention to other rural primary schools in Unyama Sub-County, Gulu District and beyond, as part of efforts to keep more girls in school and prevent early pregnancy and child marriage.
Florence Anna Alanyo, the Assistant Resident District Commissioner for Gulu, who commissioned the facility, commended YWIDE and its development partners for investing in facilities that directly respond to challenges faced by the girl child.
Alanyo said providing girls with safe and private spaces for changing sanitary materials can help them remain in class during their menstrual periods and contribute to efforts to prevent teenage pregnancies and school dropout.
The Head Teacher of Unyama Primary School, Can-Ogura Denish, said the new facility will benefit more than 450 girls currently enrolled at the school noting that girls currently constitute the majority of learners at Unyama Primary School, making the facility an important addition to the school.
He said before the facility was provided, some girls had no private space to change during their menstrual periods, forcing them to miss lessons or remain at home stating that the facility will therefore help improve girls’ attendance, dignity and participation in classroom activities.
YWIDE says the intervention is part of its broader efforts to prevent and respond to child marriage and teenage pregnancy by addressing some of the practical barriers that keep adolescent girls away from school.