Support 2000 Kenya school girls with reusable pads

Our girls in schools are progressing on well despite the challenging moments beginning of this year. It has been raining since April and slowly the situation is improving. As earlier reported, we managed to buy sanitary towels for 1 school in Isiolo (Kachiuru primary school) and 1 in Kajiado (Endonyio Sidai primary school). The sanitary towels were distributed to the school girls in the two schools and the girls were very happy and excited to have them. We also managed to support 2 secondary schools in Baringo in July 2019. It was our first time to distribute towels to secondary schools where we not only did the distribution but also conducted detailed trainings on sexuality, hygiene, reproduction health, family planning, early marriages among others. Baringo County is an area where girls are facing serious challenges where they are dropping out of schools as a result of early pregnancies and early marriages. One of the contributing factors to this is high poverty levels affecting most families in the region and providing sanitary towels to girls has been very challenging with parents not able to buy them for their girls where they end up falling into men’s traps of engaging into sexual activities so that they can be given some money. The teachers confirmed to us that just like in primary schools most girls fail to attend school during their periods as they feel that they are not safe depending on the type of materials they use as sanitary towels. Girls were very happy and they promised to work hard and avoid being absent from school. They also promised to avoid sex when they are still in school. We really encouraged them to concentrate on education at this point. The teachers appreciated the training provided to both boys and girls as well as the sanitary towels given to their girls. We are happy that through your kind support we have been able to support more girls and we are very grateful for your generosity. We still have a very long way to go as we have so many girls that are still in need of the sanitary towels and we request for more support. Thank you very much.

The year 2019 started well although with very many challenges.  It has been extremely dry in most parts of the country and many low earning families have really been struggling to make the ends meet.  Many parents have struggled to pay school fees for their children for the first term of the school calendar and providing other very basic needs for their children.  Due to prolonged drought in most parts of the country, source of income has really reduced as majority of low income earners depends on agricultural activities for survival and income generation.  We are optimistic the situation will improve soon as we expect rains.  Due to these challenges the number of needy people is unfortunately increasing and as a result we have received many requests to support school girls with reusable sanitary towels as their parents and guardians are not in a position to support their daughters due to limited resources.  We are happy to report that we managed to support 70 girls in Baringo schools with reusable sanitary towels in February 2019 and we have purchased more to be distributed in Isiolo and Kajiado when schools open for the 2^nd term in May 2019.  We hope to raise more funds to purchase more towels as we have so many requests to support vulnerable girls in various schools.  Although we have not promised anything, we are requesting our well-wishers and friends to consider contributing some money so that we can support our girls with reusable sanitary towels to keep them in schools. 

During monitoring and evaluation sessions we received positive feedback from beneficiaries and the school teachers.  It was reported that girls have really improved in performance and absenteeism has really reduced.  Our beneficiaries informed us that they feel confident with sanitary towels and they feel fully protected hence no reasons to be absent during their days.  They reported that the towels are comfortable and easy to clean ensuring that their personal hygiene is improving.  They appreciated the topics on adulthood, adolescents, hygiene etc that are conducted during distribution and monitoring sessions.  They expressed their gratitude to all friends and well-wishers for their support towards this project.  They are optimistic that many girls will benefit especially those who have not received any support and struggling to get the sanitary towels which is very challenging and risking their lives.  We call upon our friends and well-wishers to continue supporting this project.  Thank you all for your kind support and we still request for more support. 

Happy New Year 2019.  We thank God for giving us another year to serve the less privileged in our society and we thank all those who have walked the journey with us and we encourage them to continue the journey with us as we cannot go far with your kind support.  We thank all who contributed to this project that ensured that our girls received reusable sanitary towels and they were able to continue well with their studies.  As we start this New Year, we request our friends to consider supporting our girls with reusable sanitary towels.  We have realized that the number of girls in need of these towels is growing and many young girls are starting their periods at very early age compared to others sometimes back.  As we fundraise, we target more than 2,000 girls so as to ensure even those in lower grades who are starting their periods are well prepared with the necessary materials as well as the issues of hygiene and adolescents.  We have been conducting sessions when distributing sanitary towels where we also involve boys so that they can as well understand into details on issues of adolescence and what is expected of them when the girls are on their days. 

Previously we reported the needs to do more fundraising so as to support girls in PCEA primary school with towels but yet we have not managed to raise enough funds to buy the towels.  We have not given up on this and we hope this year we will have more funds which will enable us support these needy girls.  At this point we request all our global giving friends and other well-wishers to make this initiative realistic so as to help our girls and keep them in schools and in good hygiene and health.  This year we will work hard to ensure we improve the current situation there are many challenges but we believe together we will solve them and improve status of others.  Thank you all for your continued support and we request you to continue supporting our communities.  We wish you a prosperous year 2019.

As earlier reported, we intended to raise funds in order to support more girls from PCEA primary school with sanitary towels but unfortunately we have not managed to raise the required  money to support the many girls in this school but we will continue fundraising and at this point we kindly request our global giving friends to consider donating some funds in order to support girls in PCEA primary school with re-usable sanitary towels.  The money we had raised was not much and we felt that we don’t want to repeat the previous mistake of supporting some girls and denying others.  We are therefore requesting people to support this initiative by contributing some money through global giving platform. 

I conducted monitoring and evaluation in schools where we had distributed sanitary towels to find out how the beneficiaries are benefitting and to find out if there are challenges that rrquired immediate or special attention and am happy to report that we received very positive feedback from the girls and teachers where the teachers said that girls classroom absenteeism has really reduced and most of them have not been missing classes compared to the previous years.  They also reported that their performances are also improving and they are optimistic that they will continue performing well.  The girls on the other hand gave us positive feedback although with challenges here and there and in our capacity we have tried to solve some of these challenges.  Girls reported that they were happy as they don’t have to bother their parents when they are on their days and they don’t miss classes when they are on their periods.  They also reported that the pads are very use to and maintain and they appreciated the talks given to them from different organization.  We will continue fundraising in order to get more resources to improve the situation.  Thank you all for contributing and supporting our girls.

Sanitary towels is such an essential need to have that many people have not put much emphasis on and assume that every woman can afford packet (s) of sanitary towels every month.  With the sanitary towels support project, we have learnt how important they are and how much people appreciate this support as parents have expressed their gratitude for the sanitary towels given to their girls.  They explained that they have been struggling so much to buy a packet of sanitary pads for their daughters and extra burden to the parents with more than one girl above 12 years.  They explained much as they know that this is a special need for their daughters, they sometimes can’t afford to buy them and this lead to girls missing school during their days since they are not comfortable with the alternative materials they use instead of presentable sanitary towels.  They sincerely expressed their appreciation to all who have contributed to this success and they request them and others to consider supporting even more girls.

On 18^th May 2018, with Karunga women group, we visited PCEA primary school to have a talk with girls on adolescent, womanhood and hygiene and we distributed 60 sets of   sanitary towels to the most vulnerable girls. The school has very high population and we could not manage to give all the girls above 12 years reusable sanitary towels much as we know all of them wanted them and we promised them to do more fundraising to enable us support all girls from grade 4 to grade 8.  The teachers helped us identify the most vulnerable girls and we didn’t feel very happy for selecting some but the circumstances led us to that.  We request our well-wishers to consider supporting us even further and we thank all for the support given this far.  We had a good session with the teachers and girls discussing some of the challenges that school girls are facing and how to overcome these challenges.  Karunga women group members had the opportunity to share with the teachers and girls how this project has also helped them improve their living standards. 

On 30^th May 2018, Karunga women group hosted wife to the current Member of Parliament (MP) of Molo Constituency in their workshop when she visited the group to learn on the type of projects they are doing and she was impressed with the reusable sanitary towels initiative and promised to support the group.  This is a good sign that the group is growing and the exposure is improving.  She bought 100 reusable sanitary towels from the group and together with group members distributed to them girls in Nyakiambi secondary school the same day.  They had the opportunity to discuss and share with the girls and teachers on hygiene, womanhood and careers.  Again we intend to distribute more sanitary towels to other girls in the same school and we request people to join us towards this support.  We thank you all for your support towards this project.