Menstrual Dignity for Refugee Women

Wherever you are in the world this time of year, it feels that celebrations abound! The DfG team in Nepal recently celebrated Dashain. Our Uganda team rejoiced at Independence Day. The Canadian Chapters gathered for Thanksgiving. And ahead are many more celebrations that will bring together families, communities, and a spirit of togetherness. In the midst of these varied festivities, Days for Girls continues to look for ways to give back days and bring together girls and women from around the world.

The volunteer DfG Chapters are about to begin a distribution of more than 33,000 DfG Kits to refugees in Lebanon. To a similar end, the East Africa team is gearing up for their final distribution of the year for South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda - and they need your help to make it happen! So far, your support has given thousands of girls and women access to long-lasting, environmentally-friendly menstrual health products. As we forge ahead with self-sustaining ventures like our DfG Enterprises, there are still urgent situations that require immediate donations, such as our refugee communities. Your support now - even just $10 - can translate to immediate impact for a girl or woman in one of Uganda's many refugee settlements. Thank you for being part of the Days for Girls global family! 

In an area in Western Uganda, a refugee  settlement named Kiryandongo was reopened in 2014 to respond to the growing influx from the South Sudanese emergency and now hosts almost 60,000 refugees. The majority of refugees are from South Sudan, with a small number from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Sudan. 

Thanks to your donation, Days for Girls was able to organize health classes and distributions of menstrual DfG Kits to 711  women and girls this past quarter at the settlement. The classes were taught directly at the schools and were enthusiastically received. 

An added bonus was that all DfG Kits were made by local women in Uganda.  By supporting local women through our Enterprise program you not only bring employment opportunities to the local community, but you empower women to be leaders which enables long lasting change.  

Thank for for being a global champion for good.

While Uganda is one of the friendliest locations to refugees from around the region, and many stakeholders have come together provide basic necessities like access to land, cooking & housing supplies, and basic provisions, the challenges facing refugee populations are immense. I remember my first visit to the Adjumani Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda in 2014. As we drove along the dusty road, I barely registered that we had entered the settlement. The rounded thatched huts blended into the local community almost seamlessly, dotted along the horizon. The long, narrow roads were periodically interrupted by protruding rocks and trickling streams. As we navigated to our training location within the settlement, I saw our participants gathering. With colorful cloths tied around their shoulders, the women and girls who joined us made a bright and beautiful crowd. For many of them, the clothes they wore were the only ones they owned as they had left home in a time of crisis, and with no time to pack or prepare for the journey ahead, and little opportunity since to buy more. 

During that first visit, the women and staff shared more about the structure of the settlement. Refugees were given plots of land and basic tools for planting. Schools and health centers were established throughout the settlement, and initial provisions were made available. However, in many ways, these families and unaccompanied children have been expected to navigate much of this new journey on their own - as is the case with refugee populations around the world. It is in this vein that Days for Girls made the commitment to ease their journey by providing access to menstrual health products and women's health education. We can't solve every problem, but this is one that we can tackle!

With a wonderful alignment to Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28th, and World Refugee Day on June 20th, our East African team is on track to deliver more than 1,000 DfG Kits to refugees in northern Uganda this June. The production team is in full swing sewing each DfG Kit, and our trainers are fully engaged with partners to ensure that the women's health sessions are delivered with care and attention. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue our on-going refugee support programs, and see many more girls and women reached throughout the year. Thank you for all that you do to make this possible!

2018 was a big year in Days for Girls' efforts to support menstrual health solutions in refugee settlements in East Africa. With more than 13,000 DfG Kits distributed to refugee women and girls, and a great deal of behind the scenes work to make it all possible, there is now a high bar to pass in 2019. As we move forward however, we are doing so with learning and evaluation at the top of our minds. In 2019, we will partner with other stakeholders in northern Uganda to participate in an in-depth study of the impact that menstrual health solutions have for refugee girls and women.

The continuous process of asking, listening, and learning is a critical component of building and growing any program, as the voices and experiences of the girls and women themselves must inform every decision that is made. By partnering with other experts in the fields of water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health, we are excited to dive even deeper into the what, why, and how of supporting refugee girls and women in their communities.

As these evaluations take place, the DfG team will continue with education and distribution efforts to reach more girls & women. Production is ramping up in the Kampala Office, and among Enterprises based in or near refugee communities. Additionally, greater systems support is being built to allow for real-time data collection of distributions, better quality assurance support measures, and in person follow up to our Enterprise leaders.

Thank you for going on this journey with us! We can’t wait to see all that can be accomplished in 2019, together.

With over 1 million refugees, Uganda is home to one of the world’s fastest growing refugee populations. Many of these families and individuals are fleeing conflict in neighboring South Sudan, with others escaping chronic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo or intermittent danger in Burundi or other locations. 2018 has seen a continued increase in the numbers of people seeking refuge in Uganda, a large percentage of which are women and girls of reproductive age. Many of the challenges women and girls face when managing menstruation are often amplified in refugee settings, resulting in a greater need for access to sustainable menstrual health supplies and education. 

As Days for Girls came upon its 10th anniversary--November 1st of this year--we looked to ways to continue working toward our goal of reaching  Every Girl. Everywhere. Period, recognizing the tremendous need of displaced women and girls. We wanted to not only celebrate this incredible milestone, but to give girls and women a reason to celebrate as well. And we did just that.  

DfG's recent Global Girls Festival--a month-long celebration during which we rallied to reach over 100,000 girls and women with menstrual health solutions--provided the perfect catalyst for bringing menstrual care to many of Uganda's displaced women and girls. Utilizing festival resources, local DfG Enterprises were able to make and distribute 10,000 DfG Kits with health education to the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Western Uganda. 

Not only was the DfG Uganda team thrilled for the opportunity to return to Kiryandongo, where the reception has been positive and heartfelt in the past, but also for the added opportunity to empower local DfG Enterprises in Uganda and Kenya who made all of the DfG Kits that were distributed that day. 

The dual-impact of this distribution cannot be overstated; not only did we reach 10,000 women and girls with menstrual supplies and health education, but each of the participating DfG Enterprises earned income that has allowed them to contribute to their families and grow their small DfG businesses.

 All in all, it took a team of 75 trainers to reach all 10,000 girls and women on this special day – the 10^th birthday of Days for Girls. What a way to celebrate!