Interventions

Days for girls

Days for Girls discusses the impact menstruation has on girls' education in developing countries.

"VISION: Every girl and woman with ready access to feminine hygiene, by 2024.

MISSION: Days for Girls is dedicated to creating a more free, dignified, and educated world, through providing lasting access to feminine hygiene solutions and health education."

-- Days for Girls website

As discussed on the home page, Days for Girl began in 2008 after founder Celeste Mergens visited an orphanage outside Nairobi. After visiting, Mergens began wondering what these girls did to manage their periods and learned that most just sat in their rooms for the duration of each period. Mergens saw the need for a sustainable solution and Days for Girls was born. Since 2008, their kits have been redesigned 28 times to reflect cultural expectations and consumer feedback, and they have reached over 800,000 women and girls in over one hundred countries. Their goal is to reach one million women by 2018.

Each menstrual kit comes in a fun patterned drawstring bag and contains the following:

2 waterproof shields
8 reusable liners
2 pairs of underwear
1 washcloth
1 bar of soap
2 Ziploc plastic bags to carry used materials in

When enough kits are gathered to bring to an under-served community, Days for Girls sends the kits with a health educator who will show women and girls how to use the productions, and give them information on reproductive and women's health.

Days for Girls does not just focus on aid-based interventions. They also help establish micro-enterprise centers where local women come to make the pads. The women are then able to sell the kits at an affordable price to other women, schools, non-profits, etc. Part of the income generated goes back to purchasing supplies to make more kits. This empowers women by teaching them marketable skills, giving them an opportunity to earn their own income, and continuing to break the taboo around menstruation ("Days for Girls").

Interventions are programs, policies, and procedures used to address access to feminine hygiene products in Kenya and around the world.

The following interventions and their agencies are being used to address access to feminine hygiene products:

1) Reusable hygiene products

2) Reproductive health education

3) Empowering women through capacity-based projects.

This map details the reach Days for Girls has had since its' creation in 2008.

Through their multi-faceted work, these are the SDGs met by Days for Girls. I would also argue they meet #11 & #13 because their products are reusable.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

2016 Annual Report: https://www.daysforgirls.org/annual-report
How to get involved: https://www.daysforgirls.org/get-involved
Days for Girls website: https://www.daysforgirls.org/

AFRIpads

MISSION: "Empower women and girls through business, innovation and opportunity."

-- AFRIpads website

Similar to Days for Girls, AFRIpads works to produce reusable feminine hygiene products for women, and has also established workshops where local women can come and produce the AFRIpads menstrual kits while earning an income for themselves.

AFRIpads was founded and continues to operate solely in Uganda, started in 2010 by Canadian couple Paul and Sophie Grinvalds. While living and serving in a remote village in Uganda, the Grinvalds saw the need for a solution to how Ugandan women were currently managing their periods. They took it upon themselves to work towards that solution and AFRIpads was born.

Thus far, AFRIpads has reached 1.5 million women and girls across the globe. The main office is still located in Uganda and staffed by 150 Ugandan employees, 90% of whom are women.

Each menstrual kit contains:

3 reusable maxi pads
1 reusable super maxi pad
1 bag to carry used pads in

Each pad can be fasten into place in underwear by snapping together the buttons on each wing of the pad. After use, the pad needs to be soaked in cold water for five to ten minutes and then cleaned with soap or detergent. It takes an AFRIpad approximately two hours to dry ("AFRIpads")

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Visit the AFRIpads website: https://www.afripads.com/

Co-founder Sophie Grinvalds is seen here discussing the journey to AFRIpads, the impact they have had on the community, and shows a group of school girls the contents of an AFRIpads Menstrual Kit.

Ugandan schoolgirls are pictured with their new AFRIpads menstrual kits ("AFRIpads").

Gleaning for the World's WiNGS program

This video shows how Wing's menstrual kits and teaching kits build empowerment in women in Rwanda. Harriette Ingabire of the Red Rocks Women's Cooperative in Muzanse, Rwanda, says "you help women, you help the world" ("Sustainable Job Creation in Rwanda", 2017).

Standard Menstrual Kits

2 shields
8 liners
2 pairs of underwear
Washcloths
Soap
Clothes pins
Washable bag
Airtight plastic bag
Pictorial instruction sheet

("Gleaning for the World - Wing Kits")

Teaching Kits

All the unsewn and disassembled parts needed to make a menstrual kit
Sewing machines
Other necessary equipment

Wings also works with international women's organizations to support micro-enterprises.

("Gleaning for the World - Wings Kits")

"MISSION: Alleviating suffering by efficiently distributing critical humanitarian aid."

-- Gleaning for the World website

GFTW works by taking materials destined for landfills, such as misprints and overproduced products, and sends them to people in need across the world. They have won Forbes' Most Efficient Charity in four out of the past five years.

GFTW also supports a number of programs worldwide, one such program being Wings. Through Wings, women in low income villages can receive menstrual kits and/or teaching kits. Very much like Days for Girls and AFRIpads, Wings aims to give women and girls the products and education they need to manage their periods and also teach them job skills to promote empowerment and give them another outlet to earn income. So far, GFTW has reached 3,500 women through the Wings initiative ("Gleaning for the World - Wings").

For more information, please visit the Gleaning for the World website at:

https://gftw.org/

Zanaafrica

NIA TEEN & THE NIA PROJECT

Nia Teen is a magazine published and distributed by ZanaAfrica to adolescent girls in Kenya. There is no formalized reproductive health curriculum in Kenya's schools, so Nia Teen seeks to fill that gap for girls. The magazine is part of a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation called The Nia Project. The goal of the project is to measure the effect feminine hygiene products and reproductive education have on girls education, health, and social lives ("Health Education").

"MISSION: ZanaAfrica Foundation supports adolescent girls in Kenya to stay in school by delivering reproductive health education and sanitary pads.

VISION: We envision a world where girls in East Africa live healthy, safe, educated lives while defining their own purpose - a world in which menstrual health management is recognized as a human right, and the onset of puberty as the most effective time to engage girls in a range of personal health decisions."

-- ZanaAfrica website (http://www.zanaafrica.org/mission-vision/)

The ZanaAfrica Foundation works towards their vision in three different ways:

1) Creating innovative health education

2) Delivering pads & education

3) Leading policy and advocacy

GLOBAL ADVOCACY: MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY

In partnership with other WASH United, ZanaAfrica was one of the founding organizations that helped to create a day to focus on menstrual hygiene management. Menstrual Hygiene Day was first celebrated in 2014, and has since continued to grow ("Global Advocacy").

MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY 2017 HIGHLIGHTS:

350 events in 54 countries
186,000 followers on social media (up from 19,000 before MHD 2017)
MHD video "To Bleed Without Violence" was shared on social media over 81,000 times
Key partners included UNICEF, USAID, and Global Citizen

-- "About Menstrual Hygiene Day"

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

The ZanaAfrica Foundation: http://www.zanaafrica.org/
To donated to ZanaAfrica: https://secure.squarespace.com/commerce/donate?donatePageId=562a1cf6e4b045720ac5e32f
Menstrual Hygiene Day 2017 Report: http://menstrualhygieneday.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/MHDay-2017_HighlightReport.pdf
Press coverage of MHD 2017: http://www.hindustantimes.com/fitness/menstrual-hygiene-day-it-s-time-boys-uttered-the-word-period-without-a-snigger/story-zJhKafmrrDEiMzCKglYf0N.html & http://gnnliberia.com/2017/05/31/medica-liberia-celebrates-menstrual-hygiene-day/

RUMPS IN UGANDA

Stacey Frankenstein-Markon

While working for the Peace Corps in Bukedea, Uganda, Michigan Technological University graduate student Stacey Frankenstein-Markon was stunned by the lack of sanitary supplies in her small village. Frankenstein-Markon was determined to find a way to give these women their lives back during their periods and found an old tried and true method developed by another Peace Corps volunteer: Re-Usable Menstrual Pads.

Similar to the reusable pads made by Days for Girls and AFRIpads, RUMPS are cloth "envelopes" that women insert a liner into and wear during their periods. These reusable pads are easy to clean, and one costs about twenty-five cents and last for several months.

Before teaching local women and girls how to make their own RUMPs, Frankenstein-Markon taught them about puberty, sex, pregnancy, and STIs. Frankenstein-Markon encouraged questions and open, honest conversations at these lessons. Through her work, Frankenstein-Markon reached over 1,800 girls, women, and men (Donovan, 2012).