Empower & Educate the Girls of Rural Kisumu

Dear Donor,

Thank you so much for your continued support to this project! In our last couple of reports, we had shared with you about the workshops we had carried out during International Women’s Week and the incredible milestone of having raised $15,000 on this project over the past four years.

In this report, we bring to you incredible stories of the young girls and women whose academic journeys and lives have been touched by your generosity. We also share with you about the recent work we have begun in Seme Sub County.

We also want to highlight that for this project to continue creating ripples in marginalized communities this year, we need to raise another $13,410. Will you help us reach this target? Will you consider making a donation? Or sharing this report with your friends and family?

“Stories have the power to create social change and inspire community.” – Terry Tempest Williams

We bring to you some of the powerful stories that came about as a result of the workshops we have done since the start of the pandemic:

Crispine:

Crispine is a student who received re-usable sanitary pads through this program and has been using them for quite a few months. They help her attend school regularly. She shared with us that now that her mom doesn’t have to buy sanitary pads for her every month, she uses the money to save for her school fees. 

"My mom cooks chapati to make an income and I come from a family of 10 children - 5 girls and 5 boys. My father favours the boys and gets them whatever they want but if I ask him for things, he says there’s no money. He would rather use it to pay school fees for the boys. It’s my mom who takes care of us (the girls). I want to become a doctor so I can take care of my family in the future. I would like them to be in a better place.

When I have children in the future, I will treat them equally because I don't want them to face the same inequality I did just because I was a girl. I also want to encourage girls that face the same difficulties as me and let them know that education is very important and to never lose hope!"

Rihanna and Melvin

Rihanna was 16 years old at the time she attended the Girls Empowerment workshop at RKF (The Rahul Kotak Foundation) with her sister. Nine months after that workshop, we caught up with her and got to hear about her experience of attending it:

“I want to appreciate you guys for teaching us important things. I learnt that I have the power to say NO and make the right decisions for myself. The workshop helped me open up to my mum. We now sit down to “piga stories” (tell stories) and whenever there’s something going on, I share it with her and get advice!”

Melvin, on the right is Rihanna’s sister who also attended the workshop and received re-usable pads so that she could continue her education with ease. She recently shared with us that she passed her KCPE exams and joined Secondary School! This brought so much joy to our team because that is precisely why this program exists. We strengthened this program during the pandemic when teenage pregnancies had risen dramatically and girls were left with no choice but to stop their education. Melvin’s story fills us with hope and joy!

Shaloam and Shammah

Hellen is Shammah and Shaloam’s mum. Last year, she attended our Girls Empowerment workshop with Shaloam, who received a sanitary pads kit with menstrual health and hygiene training. At the end of that workshop, Shaloam made a promise to us that she would finish school and make herself proud. And she kept that promise!! She recently completed her primary school education and recently enrolled into Secondary School!

This year, Hellen returned with her younger daughter, Shammah. When we asked her about her experience of attending the workshop, she excitedly share this with us: “I loved the workshop! It made me very happy because it taught me about how I can take care of my daughters and how to stay safe! We also learn about how to look after our bodies. Thank you!”

This story highlights the breadth, depth and ripple effects of our Girls Empowerment program: not only do we have an amazing mum who feels empowered to keep supporting her girls through their education, she also knows the importance of prioritizing their (including her own) overall well-being. In Shaloam and Shammah, we have brilliant young women who are setting an example for girls in their schools and communities about the importance of completing their education.

As team RKF, we feel blessed to watch these incredible stories unfold. To many more such stories.

Teacher Emily for Alendu Girls

Teacher Emily from Alendu Primary School closely works with the girls in her school. She attended the Girls Empowerment workshops during which she shared with us one of her concerns.

“One of the biggest and most common challenge that mothers and daughters face is lack of conversation which hinders them from having a relationship amongst themselves.”

During the RKF workshops, she saw mothers from her community get up and share their experience of getting their first period and the challenges they faced in that moment. Listening to their mothers speak, many daughters could relate and in turn open up about some of the challenges they currently face.

As the sessions came to an end, Teacher Emily told our team: “Thank you so much for your efforts in empowering both the girls and their mothers. You made them see the gaps they've been leaving out. That is really important.”

Seme Sub-County

At the height of the pandemic, Seme saw a rise in teenage pregnancies and early marriages, a problem they have had for many years. At the invitation of the Directorate of Child Services, our team was able to carry out a pilot program with young girls from 10 different schools in Seme Sub County in June 2022 on the occasion of the Day of the African Child. Our team provided 55 girls and their mothers/female guardians with intensive menstrual health and hygiene training through our Girls Empowerment workshops. The girls also each received a Sanitary Kit that will last them for 12-18 months. And to the surprise of these young girls, we also arranged for them to have some fun and jump on a Bouncy Castle. Much more on this will be shared in our next report.

Ecological Aspect of the Program

Apart from empowering girls with sanitary pad kits and supporting them with menstrual health and hygiene knowledge, our Girls Empowerment project also addresses the ecological footprint left behind by disposable sanitary pads.

According to a report by Menstrual Health Alliance India, one disposable pad takes between 500-800 years to decompose. By offering reusable sanitary pads, our project has reduced the use of nearly 179,390 disposable pads over the past four years!!

Links:

• Become a Monthly Donor and get matched by 100%
• Read our latest report from our Main Project!
• Read our latest report from our Climate Action Project!

WE = you + RKF through GlobalGiving

WE did it!! Our Girls Empowerment project hit its first major milestone of US$15,000 a few weeks ago and we are elated to have reached this goal. 

In a few days, we will be sharing five powerful stories from this project that continue to inspire us to keep doing this work. We hope they will continue to inspire you to keep giving to support this work.

Where did we start? And how far have we come?

As we had shared in our previous report, when we started this program in 2018, we were responding to a worrying trend of highly skewed girl:boy ratios we saw in some of our rural schools. Girls were dropping out of primary school after they started their periods because they didn’t have access to sanitary pads. This is the first time we saw the devastating impact of period poverty. So we started making sure girls had access to pads.

We started with the girls of Soko Primary School in Nyakach in January 2018: See our first ever report here. During our first ever workshop, we supported 29 girls with re-usable pads and we have come a long way since.

In the past four years, this program has evolved into something that not only equips girls with eco-friendly sanitary kits that keeps them on their academic journey, but also empowers them through knowledge on menstrual health management, body positivity and self-belief. Plus, it also includes their mothers and guardians as a part of the dialogue we co-create as a community to end the taboo and stigma around this topic.

The US$15,000 we have raised on this project so far was used to support 814 girls and 499 mothers to date. That is a total of 1,304 direct beneficiaries of the project. Its ripple effects go far and beyond.

In 2018 and 2019 (pre-pandemic) we supported 330 girls with re-usable sanitary kits and basic menstural health and hygiene talks. Most of these activities took place at school and were focussed in Dunga, Nyalenda and Nyamasaria. In 2019, we also held a special screening of the movie Queen of Katwe at St. Vitalis Nang'a Primary (we've shared a throwback photo below)

Since 2020, this program evolved into much more as a result of the rise in teenage pregnancies during the pandemic. We have supported 490 girls and 479 mothers (a total of 969 direct beneficiaries) with the following:

• each girl received a sanitary pads kit that lasts them between 12-18 months; each kit contains a bucket, a re-usable pads kit, soap, toilet paper and panties
• each mother/guardian received food support during the pandemic; the rations supplied served ~15,175 meals
• both the girls and mothers received invaluable training on menstrual health and hygiene management

Other than ensuring girls have a sanitary kit to use during their monthly periods, this program also addresses the ecological footprint left behind by disposable sanitary pads. According to a report by Menstrual Health Alliance India, one disposable pad takes between 500-800 years to decompose. By offering re-usable sanitary pads, this project has reduced the use of nearly 179,390 disposable pads over the past four years!!

What Next

As we had shared with you during our International Women's Day Campaign earlier this month, we are hoping to reach a total of 2,022 girls this year: 1,011 girls + 1,011 mums in the year 2022. Will you help us get to this goal?

So far we have reached 129 girls and 118 mothers in 2022 and we are hoping to ramp up activites in early May as schools reopen or a new academic year. 

For that we need at least another US$15,000 to provide each girl and mum with the necessary menstrual health and hygiene training, basic sex education and body postiivity talks. Each girl will also receive a Sanitary Pad kit that contains reusable pads, soap, panties and toilet paper that will last them for the next 12-18 months. Each mum will receive a small food pack to keep supporting her daughter while she is in school.

For this reason, we have extended our Project Goal to US$30,000. Will you help us reach this goal by making a donation of $250? If you would like to make a smaller donation, please do during our upcoming Little by Little Matching Campaign.

Little by Little Matching Camapaign

As you probably know by now, the Litttle by Little Matching Campaign is our absolute favourite campaign of the year. 

From April 4-8, when you give up to $50 to support girls from marginalized communities, GlobalGiving will match your generosity at 50% for the LittleByLittle campaign. 

Help us spread the word: share this campaign with your family and friends to let them know that BIG change can come from little acts of kindness! 

Links:

• Sign up to our Monthly Newsletter!
• Become a Patron: make a monthly donation
• Read our latest update from Educational Support given to Alendu