“My first period came when I was 13 in the middle of lesson at school - says Rebeca, 16, from Gulu in Northern Uganda. “When I saw blood on my knickers, I rushed to ask my friend where it was coming from. She said I had started menstruating, but I didn’t understand what she meant.”
Rebecca was advised to have a bath and tell her mother about what had happened. “My mother told me not to play with boys again because I have now grown,” says Rebeca. “When I asked her about the pads, she told me she uses Old cloths and I should use the same. I got a cloth we were no longer using, tore it into pieces, washed it and dried it properly. That’s how I managed my first period and for the long time to follow, at times my school dress got stained and students laughed at me”
Rebeca further asked her friends about managing their periods. “Some told me they use rags, others said they use disposable pads but my parents refused to buy me sanitary pads. Fearing I would stain my school dress, I decided not to go back to school until my periods are done”
Unaware, her period was set to last for longer than days, Rebeca was shocked when the bleeding continued. “It took a full week - 7 school days I missed classes. I was forced to go back to my mother and ask for pads again as I got bruises every time, I used cotton cloth. She still refused. That’s when I started doing manual labour, digging for people, to earn money for pads. When I failed to earn enough, I started using rags again.”Rebeca now has access to sanitary pads through the Healthy Periods initiative implemented by Volunteer Action Network
Volunteer Action Network supports 600 girls with sanitary pads on a monthly basis making sure they stay in school and concentrate on their studies something that has improved their self-esteem and performance in class. We are committed to continues the production and distribution of pads, educate and creating awareness about period poverty and its side effects. We relly heavily on your generoug contribution to make access to sanitary pads a reality to girls and women in Norther Uganda. We kindly ask for your donation towards make Heathy Periods Initative continue reaching deserving girls and women.
Links:
"I was really worried about my family since all public activities were suspended and my family depended on the market to earn income. Like many other girls, I felt unsafe when all small shops closed. It has been difficult for girls in the community to get sanitary and hygiene products during this pandemic, many have been exposed to worse challenges such as forced marriage I almost lost my pride" Says Daphine 15 years-
“Due to lack of sanitary pad supply, females are depending on using traditional cloth napkins. Many of them don’t know the proper way of cleaning it and likely there is ample scope for bacterial infection.”
According to Plan International, in Uganda 28% of girls miss school because they are menstruating. They meet challenges in access and affordability of menstrual products for example pads and end up improvising with materials that are not hygienic such as cow dung, old used clothes among others, lack of proper sanitation infrastructure both in schools and at homes and those that have them are in a really poor condition with no doors or the women and girls have to share the facilities with men and boys and insufficient knowledge of menstrual hygiene management. This is indeed a worrying situation that calls for joint efforts by all implementing partners.
Through the pandemic period, we continued manufacturing and distributing our locally made sanitary pads reaching out over to 2,850 girls and women
Distributing pads alone is not enough. We have been conducting MHM education targeting girls, boys, women, and men to addressing stigma, education, and leadership
We are joining the world and we believe;- A world without period poverty and stigma is possible. We cannot wait for the Covid-19 pandemic to end. We need to step up action and investment in menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) NOW!
We hope you will join us and consider donating to this special #MHDAY2021 Click https://www.globalgiving.org/39549
Links:
"I was really worried about my family since all public activities were suspended and my family depended on the market to earn income. Like many other girls, I felt unsafe when all small shops closed. It has been difficult for girls in the community to get sanitary and hygiene products during this pandemic, many have been exposed to worse challenges such as forced marriage I almost lost my pride" Says Daphine 15 years-
“Due to lack of sanitary pad supply, females are depending on using traditional cloth napkins. Many of them don’t know the proper way of cleaning it and likely there is ample scope for bacterial infection.”
According to Plan International, in Uganda 28% of girls miss school because they are menstruating. They meet challenges in access and affordability of menstrual products for example pads and end up improvising with materials that are not hygienic such as cow dung, old used clothes among others, lack of proper sanitation infrastructure both in schools and at homes and those that have them are in a really poor condition with no doors or the women and girls have to share the facilities with men and boys and insufficient knowledge of menstrual hygiene management. This is indeed a worrying situation that calls for joint efforts by all implementing partners.
Through the pandemic period, we continued manufacturing and distributing our locally made sanitary pads reaching out over to 2,850 girls and women
Distributing pads alone is not enough. We have been conducting MHM education targeting girls, boys, women, and men to addressing stigma, education, and leadership
We are joining the world and we believe;- A world without period poverty and stigma is possible. We cannot wait for the Covid-19 pandemic to end. We need to step up action and investment in menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) NOW!
We hope you will join us and consider donating to this special #MHDAY2021 Click https://www.globalgiving.org/39549
Links:
The effects caused by the measure to combat COVID-19 has affected the production and distribution of affordable sanitary pads to many girls and women. This shortage has resulted in a further bigger threat of increased teenage pregnancy and child marriages in many rural communities, If the supply does not flow continuously we risk having many girls dropping out of school.
“There is a lot of demand for affordable pads. We have received a lot of requests,” says Minishifa a project officer from one of our production units. Our production units have been idling since the lockdown was imposed, simply because we were not able to receive the raw materials. Through the period we have been distributing pads that were produced and in storage to needy girls and women and also supplying them at a cost to those seeking to buy.
There is a growing fear that if the schools open in March 2021 we might not be able to supply the needy rural schools with affordable pads if the governments do not act urgently to restore the normal production of affordable sanitary pads, the gains made over the last years in improving menstrual hygiene may be reversed in rural and peri-urban areas. We will want the government to allow normal operations of the units making these sanitary pads while observing social distancing norms as well as the unfettered distribution of the pads. Most of our units and distribution of the pads are done by women, who are organized as self-help groups. A return to normalcy is also important to restore the livelihood of these women, Says:- Bukenya
When the government partially open schools for candidate classes we have distributed over 1,260 packs of sanitary pads. We acknowledge this is not enough and we will need to double our supply in the coming months, we can never sit back and watch the future of young girls robbed.
Quote:
"Because of you I have returned back to school safe, many of my friends are pregnant and some have been forced to get married, others ran away from their homes due to violence and the luck of the essentials like sanitary pads," Says- Esther -a 13-year-old girl.
We believe this is critical and will continue to the fight for gender justice around menstrual health, we cannot do it without your thoughtful investment consider invest as small as $50 monthly to enable girls and women to have access to affordable sanitary pads
Thank you!
Links:
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the education of children both girls and boys from poor backgrounds and is escalating the risk of girls to forced marriages. We need to protect an entire generation of children from losing out on a healthy and stable future.
While COVID-19 numbers are increasing every day in Uganda we keep reminding the communities about the dangers of child marriages and the need to address the root causes such as the lack of access to sanitary pads.
The strength of a woman lays in discovering who she is! Exploring her womanhood is part of that journey. Menstrual health education and access to sanitary products are part of that journey. We are facilitating that process by producing and distributing affordable sanitary pads to young girls including information about their reproductive health rights. During the COVID-19 we distributed 2,850 pads to girls who luck access.
Quote:
"Sanitary pads are essential to us all the girls during this COVID-19 pandemic where our parents are not working due to the effects of corona Virus many of my fellow girls have no hope of going back to school because some of them are already pregnant or are forced to marriages by the very people who are supposed to protect them since they cannot afford essential needs such as access to sanitary pads," says Lucy.
We believe this is critical and will continue to the fight for gender justice around menstrual health
Moving forward, we need your help to prevent and support adolescences' girls to continue with their education. please consider your gift of donation ensuring the fight, equality and dignity continue your generous donation can help us multiply our impact.
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
