2020 during the Covid 19 outbreak, singer Sheebah Karungi launched a sanitary pad brand. Aptly called ‘Holic pads’, coined out of ‘Sheebaholics’, the name of her legion of fans. “I want to fight for you ladies, you deserve to have the best quality of pads. I want us to have good hygiene because great hygiene is essential to us women,” Sheebah shared in a statement by the time of the launching. “I am very certain that my team and I did everything we could to bring you the best product.”
I promise you this product is going to make your red days better. I am not saying this because this is my brand, but I am saying this because it’s true,” she again shared in a tweet. Away from the quality of the brand, the pads are also fairly priced. Each pack is priced at Shs. 4000 and comes with 10 pads and 2 panty-liners. This favours women and young ladies who are either in school or cannot afford other brands on the market that are more expensive. According to a study done in 2019, 86% of girls in Uganda miss school because of menstruation.
Now around December last year, Sheebah officially launched the “KEEP A GIRL CHILD IN SCHOOL WITH HOLIC PADS” campaign under her NGO Sheebah Cares Foundation. In this campaign, a donation of Ushs. 36,000, one can provide a vulnerable girl child with 12 pads for 12 months to keep her in school. She asked, “If condoms are free, why not sanitary pads”? On Friday, popular movie translator VJ Junior visited Holic Pads offices in Bunga, Kampala to Join in
this campaign that aims to end unsafe menstrual hygiene practices like girls sitting in soil in Karamoja during their cycles, use of fibers and clothes during menstrual days, girls with special needs who have double cycles a month, prostitution for pads, girls missing school during their menstrual days & so much more. As schools resume, let’s keep menstruating girls in school.
When menstruating, schoolgirls in rural Uganda would rather stay home than be uncomfortable, inactive and embarrassed due to inadequate Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) facilities at school. A friendly and supportive MHM environment that provides education, absorbent sanitary materials and adequate WASH facilities is essential to providing equal opportunity for all girls and Sheebah’s “Keep A Girl Child In School With Holic Pads” initiative strives at achieving that. Seeing public figures like VJ Junior joining such a campaign makes it even much more accomplishable.
