SUPPORT FOR OUR ADOLESCENT GIRLS

It has been well known here at Memusi that some of our female students have missed school due to menstruation. Throughout the years we have tried to provide sanitary towels to our students through generous donations and via volunteers’ suitcases however demand is always greater than what we can supply. 

We were introduced to the reusable sanitary towels through a couple of supporters so we explored this avenue further. After lots of research we decided that this was definitely something that would benefit the girls on many levels.

We found a social enterprise in Uganda called Afripads specialising in the local manufacture and global supply of cost-effective, reusable sanitary pads. The company was set up to also help ladies to have their own employment. We met with one of the Kenyan representatives to look at the product and to find out more.

Then by coincidence we discovered that one of our volunteers, Mags Ronald,  also volunteered with a charity called ‘Days For Girls’ who also make and provide reusable sanitary towels for girls in developing countries. They too are made by a social enterprise in Uganda and also by volunteers here in the UK. We found out that Mags was going  to deliver 80 kits to all our adolescent girls during the March 2018 volunteering trip.

We have always, when possible, extended our help to neighbouring schools, so with one of our volunteers delivering the kits to our students we decided to provide two neighbouring schools with some Afripad kits 

So to date, this is what we have achieved so far:

9th March 2018 - 100 packs of Afripads are delivered to  Naning’oi Girls School and ‘Train the Trainer’ training is delivered by Catherine from Afripads to Beatrice, Dianah & Selina.

19th March 2018 -‘Days For Girls' kits provided to 80 girls at Memusi School by volunteer Mags Ronald and training delivered to the girls from Mags too. 

23rd March 2018 - 100 packs of Afripads are delivered to Ilparakou Primary School where Beatrice and Selina delivered the sanitary education and training. 

Through provision of the reusable sanitary towels, we are aiming to reduce drop out rates of girls from school, increase attendance and increase the grades of the girls that we support. We intend to measure the impact of this through the year at both Memusi School and at Ilparakou School and are due to roll out to 2 more schools in Magadi later in April.

Thank you to everyone for their support, hard work and help to achieve all of this so far … amazing!