Empower Girls in Uganda with Menstrual Health

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:

1. Shifts in social norms: Increased positive attitudes about menstruation among menstruators, families, and communities.
2. Strengthened organizational capacity: Readiness within DfG and member coalitions to leverage opportunities, provide thought leadership, and demonstrate impact.
3. Strengthened base of support: Increased presence of celebrities, influencers, and local allies who publicly champion Menstrual Health (MH) as their cause.
4. Strengthened alliances: Increased number and strength of partnerships and coalitions working to advance MH within and across sectors.
5. 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:

1. 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. 
2. We further strengthened our relationship and support with Malawi’s First Lady,  SOFF, UNFPA, Plan, various ministries, and NGOs.
3. 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!