Gender Equality Uganda Project #11580

Empower Girls in Uganda with Menstrual Health

by Days for Girls International

Project Report | May 4, 2022
Your Impact on Menstrual Equity in Malawi

By Erin Hale | Development Associate

Thank you for your generous contributions to our Empowering African Girl project through GlobalGiving. Using your gifts, Days for Girls have made a significant impact on menstrual equity across the country of Malawi and we have dramatically increased our capacity for future growth. The First Lady of Malawi, parliamentarians,traditional leaders, religious leaders, and various community leaders have become advocates and taken a stand for change. Your donated funds also allowed us to build a strong core group of Men Who Know educators through a Training of the Trainers, further enabling us to exceed our projected goal of total boys reached.

We are pleased to continue our partnership with the First Lady of Malawi’s Shaping our Future Foundation (SOFF) and withthe Minister of Gender, Honorable Patricia Kaliati. Both partners helped identify students who may be experiencing menstrual inequity in underserved areas. From the launch of the project with the First Lady’s official representatives on International Menstrual Hygiene Day 2021 (May 28) until now, our small but strong band of local DfG leaders were able to reach out to seven of the most remote and underserved districts in Malawi. In each location, we:

Met with District Executive Committee leaders, all of whom endorsed us;
Met with community and religious leaders;
Delivered vital Menstrual Health (MH) education along with locally produced DfG Kits to 5,211 female students (see one girl’s reaction to receiving a DfG Kit as well as a snapshot of a Kit distribution);
Conducted Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation, including gathering 3,000+ MLE surveys.

Your donated funds also allowed us to build a strong core group of Men Who Know educators by conducting a Training of the Trainers. DfG brought in a trainer from Uganda to train six of the best candidates. This training was a great success, and these men are now prepared to go into the field in future phases of the project. Next, our newly certified Men Who Know educators traveled to the seven districts to teach male students at each of the target schools. Between October 2021 -- February 2022, we successfully reached 888 boys with DfG MH education and dignity packs (a waterproof pouch, washcloth, soap, toothbrush, and toothpaste). This exceeded our goal of reaching 850 boys. In addition to the impact the program made on the boys at each school, male community leaders and teachers were also impacted as they attended the trainings and witnessed the importance of this issue.

As part of our MLE efforts, DfG conducted individual interviews with teachers and community leaders (men and women) and held community forum meetings in each of the seven districts targeted in this project. Below are highlights from the findings:

Community members were grateful for the opportunity to hear what the girls in their community had learned.
Once they had more understanding, people in the communitywere eager to support girls who wanted to return to or remain in school instead of getting married.
Repeatedly, community members admitted that while men and boys did not know what women were experiencing, they had been harder on the womenthan they “should” have been.
In a number of the districts, the community leaders elected to create MH committees to help further what has been started.
In Mangochi District, afollow-up evaluation revealed that, as a result of DfG interventions and the Minister of Gender’s speech on the partnership launch day, 20 girls who had dropped out of school (many into child marriages) had re-enrolled and returned to school!
Upon returning to Lilongwe District, DfG Ambassadors met with 22 community leaders. The High Chief of the district brought his entire official delegation (getting up before dawn to walk several hours to the location) to meet with the DfG team to discuss this topic and how to expand the project.
In all seven districts, school and community leadership have requested expansion of the project to include additional schools.

Thank you for your part in ensuring that women and girls in Africa are able to experience the dignity of menstrual equity. To see firsthand the impact of this work, we invite you to view this film created by eMite, one of our important partners. Also, read our recent articles “Malawi Policy Win: When Communities Own Menstrual Health Solutions, Girls Benefit” and “Advancing Menstrual Equity in Malawi.”

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Jan 5, 2022
Key Behind-the-Scenes Work in Malawi & Kenya

By Erin Hale | Grants Manager

In 2021, with your support, Days for Girls did some important behind-the-scenes work to advance our goal to bring menstrual equity to women and girls in Africa. Our hard work has paid off! The following includes some recent advancements in Malawi and Kenya:

Malawi

From October 3-12, 2021, DfG Global Advocacy Director Diana Nelson, participated in a series of meetings across Malawi with the First Lady of Malawi’s Shaping Our Future Foundation (SOFF). The purpose of the meetings was to strengthen our existing relationships with SOFF, government leaders, UNFPA, PLAN, and to develop new contacts with other stakeholders in Malawi. All activities done on this trip were linked to our five advocacy program outcomes which include:

Shifts in social norms: Increased positive attitudes about menstruation among menstruators, families, and communities.
Strengthened organizational capacity: Readiness within DfG and member coalitions to leverage opportunities, provide thought leadership, and demonstrate impact.
Strengthened base of support: Increased presence of celebrities, influencers, and local allies who publicly champion Menstrual Health (MH) as their cause.
Strengthened alliances: Increased number and strength of partnerships and coalitions working to advance MH within and across sectors.
Improved Policies: Creation of policy environments that support people to manage menstruation with dignity. This includes creation of specific MH policies, integration of MH targets into broader policy agendas, creation and execution of MH policy implementation frameworks, and MH product standards.

We are thrilled to report the following top three successes:

Through our Advocacy Action meeting with SOFF and UNFPA, we brought awareness to and built support for our DfG/SOFF project and Menstrual Health as an important, on-going issue.
We further strengthened our relationship and support with Malawi’s First Lady, SOFF, UNFPA, Plan, various ministries, and NGOs.
We increased our partnership network with Malawi’s Minister of Gender, Minister of Education, MIET Africa, and an important Evangelical leader.

Kenya

Starting in July 2020, we began implementing a game-changing strategy called The DfG Impact Zones. A key design element is ensuring that our Volunteer (Chapters and Teams) and Social Enterprise Programs elevate one another by directing volunteer-made Kits to countries without DfG Social Enterprises. Thereby ensuring countries with thriving DfG Social Enterprises are sourcing locally made Kits and locally led distributions. This was a big shift in our approach and we are proud to report that it has paid off, particularly in Kenya!

In a single year, we saw a significant shift in both the volume of Kits reaching women and girls and the percentage made locally as a direct result of Kenyan leaders taking the lead. Each year from 2017-2019, DfG collectively distributed between 21,936-23,452 Kits in Kenya. Of these Kits 74-83% were made by DfG Chapters and Teams and sent to Kenya, while 17-26% were made locally.

When we applied the DfG Impact Zones, expanding our ongoing commitment to elevating local leaders and their solutions, DfG witnessed an incredible shift in outcomes. Kenyan Social Entrepreneurs distributed 43,573 washable pads (a 47% increase from the previous year) and of those Kits, 95% were locally produced. This trend continued even during the pandemic!

We are overjoyed with the outcomes of these and many more advancements in menstrual equity in 2021. We are confident that the groundwork will lead to even more progress in 2022. Thank you for your contribution to the successes we’ve reported in 2021!

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Sep 13, 2021
Empowering Girls in Malawi

By Sandy Clark & Erin Hale | Days for Girls International

Thanks to your support through GlobalGiving, Days for Girls was able to advance our work in Malawi with some incredible impact to share! By combining donations from a number of generous supporters like you, we set forth an action plan to reach 5,000 girls in some of the most remote and poorest villages in Malawi this year. Your funding has helped us move closer to this goal!

After official meetings with the First Lady of Malawi, along with other cabinet members, we participated in one of the most exciting events Days for Girls has ever hosted. Our three amazing Malawi Enterprise leaders organized a celebration event and distribution for over 600 girls to receive DfG Kits, along with a health training. The entire community turned out including tribal chiefs, school personnel and lots and lots of girls and their families!

Our local leaders rejoiced in the recognition of what they had accomplished and even more exciting, what was to come. They have a clear vision to reach the entire country of Malawi with our program based on the support of so many who have come together, including you!

Our local Days for Girls Malawi team recently headed out to the Neno district, in South Malawi. This is one of the most remote regions of Malawi, which meant they traveled by 4x4 cars and traversed treacherous roads to reach these remote villages.

On a daily basis, girls walk many kilometres to get to school, carrying pails of water on their heads from the valleys up steep hills. Often, to avoid the dangerous and difficult journey they remain at the school for days, cooking and cleaning for themselves.

Unfortunately a majority of these girls don’t complete secondary school. Instead, they are married off in a country that has one of the highest rates of early marriage in the world. One study estimates approximately 42% of girls are married before the age of 18, and 9% below the age of 15. While boys' marriage age comes much later with an estimated 1% of boys marrying before the age of 15 and 6% below the age of 18. Yet, because of your support, this dire number is beginning to change.

With determination and passion, our team reached 630 girls in 7 different schools with Days for Girls washable pads and health education this quarter. But what is even more remarkable is how these health conversations helped to empower girls to see that there are other opportunities ahead and role models that can help them see a different future.

Thank you!

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