Project Report
| Feb 18, 2014
Pads For Peace Business Educates 2000 Kenyan Girls
By Helen Greenberg | Director of Operations, Eliminate Poverty NOW
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Pads for Peace continues the distribution program it began months ago. The purpose is to provide monthly sanitary protection to over 2,000 girls from Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya thus affording them the opportunity to continue their education without monthly interruption. WIthout Pads for Peace they are forced to be absent from school so much that it is impossible for them to catch up. By missing so many assignments they drop out of school. This program allows them to stay in school, learn, complete their secondary education, and provide the possibility of going on to university.
The benefits of this program are many. Two of the biggest and most obvious are that the girls are given the chance to complete their secondary education because now they will no longer miss out one week a month of school. Statistics prove that secondary education for these girls is a ticket away from the profound poverty of the Kibera slum which helps them and their families.Additionally, the manufacture of the pads affords employment for women who assemble the pads in a small factory or work room on the grounds of the Little Rock Inclusive ECD Centre.
We are pleased to have achieved the goal of providing sanitary pads for 2,000 girls. Thanks to the Luna Pads organization and the coopertion of AfriPads, we did not need to raise all the money we orginally projected.
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Student at Rock Pads Presentation
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Nov 21, 2013
The Need Continues
By Judy Craig | Grants Committee Chair, Eliminate Poverty Now
![Kibera school girls]()
Kibera school girls
Did you know that how far a girl goes in school is the #1 predictor of how much she will earn in her lifetime? And did you know that many girls miss school because they lack sanitary protection? Missing a week of school every month makes it hard to keep up. Girls drop out of school for lots of reasons, but lacking sanitary pads should not be one of them.
If you've been reading these reports, you know that we actually DID help 2000 girls receive sanitary pads, through a very generous grant by Lunapads through their One4Her program.
But the need continues. There are still so many girls who miss school because they lack sanitary pads. And you can help!
Pads for Peace is a program that provides washable sanitary pads to girls in the Kibera slum in Nairobi. Women earn income sewing washable sanitary pads. Girls who are enrolled in sex education/reproductive health classes receive kits of pads (including reusable pads, underpants and washing supplies). Each kit will last for 5 years - enough to allow the girl to finish high school.
So we help women earn income, and girls finish school. It's a powerful combination. Help us make it possible for ALL the girls in Kibera!
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Jul 23, 2013
LunaPads One4Her Distribution - On going positive impact
By Helen Greenberg | EPN, Director of Operations
![Little Rock School, Nairobi, Kenya]()
Little Rock School, Nairobi, Kenya
As we've told you on earlier occasions, Lunapads, and its founder, Madeline Shaw, have been extremely generous to Eliminate Poverty NOW. And not just to us - they established One4Her so that their customers could help girls in Africa receive sanitary pads. It's a fantastic program. As their website explains:
For every One4Her purchase you make, Lunapads will provide a girl in need with a Uganda-made AFRIpad to support her education.
When we contacted Lunapads to see whether the girls in the Kibera slum in Nairobi could be beneficiaries of the One4Her program, Madeline Shaw asked whether there were 2,000 girls who needed pads! Our largest previous distribution had been 200 girls, and as you knnow, providing 2,000 girls with washable santiray pads has been the initial goal of Pads for Peace. So we asked Lilly - founder and director of Little Rock ECD Center, our partner in Kibera - and Lilly said, "Absolutely! We welcome the opportunity to transform so many lives."
The pads were produced at AFRIpads, a small, but growing, business in Uganda employing 60 local women. AFRIpads delivered 2,000 kits (the pads come in a sack with a small purse pouch) while Eliminate Poverty NOW added a bucket, mesh drying bag, and underpants, since many girls don't have those either.
Judy and John were in Africa for the first distribution day at Little Rock. Lilly and her staff selected 2,000 school girls to receive the kits. On the first day, 300 girls came from primary schools, secondary schools, and girls' groups, including Little Rock's own girls' group. All of them are enrolled in programs that provide sex education, HIV sensitization, gender empowerment, hygeine, etc. There were 6 training sessions, each with about 50 girls.
The girls were interested, attentive, and VERY grateful for the opportunity these pads give them to stay in school. They asked telling questions. Teacher Evelyne explained the importance of drying the pads fully in the mesh bag on the clothesline, to avoid infection. One girl (a 6th grader) asked, "Will I be able to dry them in boarding school?"
This question is special because this girl clearly assumed she would go to a good secondary school, all of which are boarding schools. She would obviously be the first in her family to do so, since she did not realize that there would be clotheslines at the boarding schools. What an opportunity Lunapads gave us to help this girl - and the other 1,999 - to achieve their life's dreams.
THANK YOU, LUNAPADS! THANK YOU ONE4HER!
We hope to keep this project going, now that we've met our initial goal. The need is still there to help more girls, and we hope that you will be inspired to be a part of changing their lives by supporting this project. And as ever, thank you for your support! We continue to distribute pads made locally at Little Rock which certainly helps reach more girls and also provides employment for local women.
To see some photos, including a slideshow, from the distribution, please visit Eliminate Poverty NOW at our blog.
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Newspaper Article
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Factory where the pads are manufactured
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