Girls' Health and Dignity
/Underprivileged girls in Kenya miss up to 56 days of schools per year due to their menstrual cycles (UNICEF 2005) as they do not have access to necessary undergarments and sanitary napkins. In addition to missing important days of classroom instruction and potentially dropping out of school because they fall behind in their studies, their health, confidence and dignity is compromised every month.
PaperSeed worked with business partners and local organizations to keep girls in school. With the generous below-market price of sanitary napkins from Mega Soft, free shipping from Fr. Meyer’s Sohn and customs assistance from East Africa Packaging Industries, we were able to keep project costs low. Local community-based organizations ZanaAfrica, PolyCom, Generation Guiders, and The Kilgoris Project ensured that the distribution of sanitary napkins and reproductive health/life skills education reached high-risk girls of the informal settlement (slum) of Kibera in Nairobi and Kilgoris, Kenya.
This project has been run on an annual basis since 2013.