Support 2000 Kenya school girls with reusable pads

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.