Let’s Keep Girls in School!

United with Kenya launches Menstruation Equity Project.

Alarmingly, girls miss up to 5 days per month because they are teased and shamed by classmates, fear embarrassment due to visible break-through bleeding, don’t have access to adequate toilet facilities to wash, and lack funds to purchase quality menstrual pads. Based on our research, over 50% of Chepsaita’s schoolgirls are negatively impacted by one or more of these factors.

With this level of absenteeism, girls fall behind in their subjects – particularly math and science – become discouraged and at risk of dropping out of school. Dropping out sets a lifelong downward socio-economic trajectory.

UwK’s first step is to build a menstruation friendly lavatory for girls. One that has a lock to ensure privacy, running water to wash, and a basic flushing toilet. Our second step will be to produce a comic book (and a facilitator manual) to address myths, stigma, and shaming. Our third step will be to partner with a local NGO and a Chepsaita women’s group to produce affordable disposable and reusable menstrual pads. The combined cost is approximately $20,000 US dollars. We are seeking donations no matter how small to reach this goal.

In 2018, UwK conducted a pilot study on menstruation management. We held focus groups with girls and boys from both local schools and interviewed teachers. We learned that girls struggle to attend school on a regular basis because they don’t have the material and emotional support they need to manage their periods. They also are victims of teasing and shaming and avoid school because they fear breakthrough bleeding.

In response to the literature and our pilot findings, we have designed a comprehensive and holistic three-pronged approach:

• Build a menstruation-friendly lavatory with community participation.
• Develop, print, and distribute a comic book designed to reduce stigma and myths about menstruation among boys and girls. We will develop a teachers facilitator manual for the comic book which will be used in workshops to increase communication between boys and girls.
• Increase access to affordable reusable and disposable menstrual pads by partnering with a Kenya NGO and organizing a group of Chepsaita female tailors.

By increasing product accessibility and building knowledge and communication, we hope to reduce school absenteeism and help break the downward cycle of educational disadvantage that impacts girls’ academic achievement and life-long opportunities.

Help Us Keep Girls In School!