Maintain Dignity of 40000 schoolgirls in Kenya.

“An initiative to improve school attendance as well as reproductive health status of 40,000 adolescent school girls, whilst generating livelihood opportunities for 500 women in rural areas and informal settlements in 3 major cities in the country”

Background

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In developing countries such as Kenya, lack of accessible and affordable sanitary towels has been known to have far reaching implications on the social, psychological and physical health of teenage girls and young women, for example on 12^th September 2019, a 14 year old girl Jackline Chepngeno committed suicide after she was humiliated in school for soiling her dress with menses. In fact, lack of sanitary pads has been proven to be a major determinant in achieving gender parity in Kenya (APHRC 2018). In Kenya, provision of sanitary wares and information on reproductive health is concentrated only in major urban centres, however despite these, access is still a major challenge in informal settlement areas such as Kibera, Muthurwa and mukuru kwa njenga among other locations particularly rural areas the majority of whom are poor; earning less than US$ 2.00 per day for a family of six members. The situation is particularly dire counties that have been traditionally marginalized such as; Homa-bay, Tana River, Turkana among other locations. On average a teenage girl on her menses loses about 13 learning days every term; regrettably most have had to use crude methods to deal with their menses thus predisposing them multiple reproductive health risks.

Due to lack of adequate knowledge and education on MHM women and girls suffer in silence and during their menstruation days ending up missing out on school, work and even socializing with peers. The greatest challenge in girls’ education is absenteeism related to reproductive health issues. Studies undertaken by a variety of agencies have indicated that lack of sanitary towels is an impediment to girls’ education. A girl misses 4 days a month due to menses. This equates to 2 weeks per term and 6 weeks during a school year. Within 4 years of high school the same girl loses 156 learning days (equivalent to 24 weeks of learning). This is not only detrimental to the girl’s chance at a thorough education and successful career, but the absenteeism from schools is linked to serious developmental issues such as early marriage, FGM, HIV, verbal abuse and even infant mortality. Thus there is a need for Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) intervention in these set-ups and also in informal urban set-ups, as envisaged in this proposal. Due to taboos, myths and general ignorance about MHM, the girls often have to endure humiliation at the hands of fellow pupils, villagers, teachers etc in the form of bullying, insults among other indignities. Considering that the vast majority of these girls come from poor families, they are often forced to use all manner of materials (old cloths, newspapers etc) during their menses, a practice that predisposes them to a host of urinary tract infections among other reproductive health related complications. These are the challenges that Imagine Africa Foundation intends to address with this proposal.

Project summary

The overall goal of this project is to produce a low cost and accessible sanitary towels for school going girls and young women in order to minimize the number of days girls missed going to school, create socio-economic acceptance of the innovated product, develop re-usable sanitary pads for commercial production as a social enterprise then document the entire process in order to capture examples of best-practice and lessons learnt that can be replicated in all parts of the country, the East African Region, across Africa and other developing countries.

IAF proposes to produce quality sanitary towels using its existing networks of women and youth groups with the objective of improving hygiene and eco-friendly usage by underprivileged women and adolescent girls in poor neighbourhoods and slums. This is an innovative idea considering that the manufacturing, awareness creation, distribution in schools, and commercial marketing will be implemented by groups made exclusively of women and girls some of whom have had to drop out of school due to pregnancies, poverty amongst other socio-economic challenges. The project intends to build an enterprise model on a pilot basis in the working areas where group(s) of women would be fostered to run the business by themselves with the support and overall supervision by Imagine Africa Foundation (IAF).

In terms of generating demand and creating awareness among the targeted beneficiaries i.e. adolescent girls and women on the importance of personal hygiene and menstrual hygiene management in the marginalized communities, the project would involve many actors such as community-based organizations (called CBOs) such as adolescent girls group, women’s groups, Self Help Groups (SHGs) formed and or supported by IAF under several project’s interventions over the years. These stakeholders will include government ministries such as Health, Gender and social services at county and national level.

Another important aspect of the project will be to develop the adolescent girls and women as entrepreneurs whilst taping their potentials and imparting technical and vocational skills, thus diversify their income portfolio, facilitate self-sufficiency as part of the social enterprise of the low-cost sanitary napkin business and responsibility to the community as whole. Two of these groups are already equipped with modern sewing machines and have benefited from business skills training; this is far more cost-effective than the traditional approach that entails procurement and or distribution of commercially produced disposable pads that are not only expensive but also harmful to the environment.

The Kenyan government, NGO’s, corporations and politicians have been sensitizing on creating awareness and donation of sanitary pads to young girls in schools, villages and areas where sanitary usage is low. This practice has seen an increase in the number of girls attending school during their menses. Many NGO’s are also working towards building toilets and changing areas and increasing menstrual hygiene awareness across the country. Anecdotal evidence indicate that women and girls switched from using the traditional methods like cloth pads to manage their menstruation to sanitary towels and tampons which is an easy use and throw option. Majority of women however, are not aware of the toxins and chemicals present in them. Moreover, these discarded napkins are creating mountains of non- bio-degradable trash. Water bodies are being severely polluted due to these napkins which take up to 800 years to degrade. Burning the pads releases deadly toxins which have proven to be carcinogenic and linked to auto-immune diseases.

Despite the country having access to all the information, donation and distribution of sanitary towels hasn’t reduced at all, it has however become the norm to distribute free napkins to government schools. Multinational companies which manufacture sanitary napkins use free samples to market and advertise their products to get more women to use the sanitary napkins. It is a myth that it is unhygienic to use traditional means to manage menstruation. Menstrual health of women who use cloth pads and other traditional means is found to be better than women who have been regularly using tampons and sanitary napkins. According to a formative research by FSG shows that 65% of Kenyan girls and women are unable to afford sanitary towels meaning if all girls and women in the menstruation age bracket start using sanitary towels we will be throwing unbelievable number of napkins annually. The sheer number is unimaginable and the environmental impact of such a large amount of toxic non-biodegradable mass is too grim to imagine.

The project will therefore not only have the direct impact on health status of girls through improvement in the health status and personal hygiene of the girls as a result of using these pads, but also improve the income levels of the women/youth groups manufacturing them, whilst reducing environmental contamination.

Overall objective

Overall Goal:

The overriding aim of this project is to ensure that 40,000 girls of menstruation age in Kenya will not have to miss school simply because they are menstruating and reduce their likelihood of contracting reproductive health related diseases. These will be achieved by Setting up a low-cost sanitary towels social enterprise that provides affordable option for menstrual hygiene management and piloting a business model that creates income earning opportunities for the girls & women in the targeted production locations. The end result would be improved dignity amongst the girls and their families in general.

Specific Project Objectives:

To establish 10 low cost sanitary towels production units managed by rural women/ Self Help Groups for ensuring adequate supply of sanitary napkins at affordable price.
To increase access to sanitary towels and comprehensive menstrual hygiene management knowledge and risk awareness of HIV&AIDS amongst 40,000 vulnerable adolescent in-school and out of school girls between the ages 10 to 17 years
To improve the economic conditions of 500 women/girls & provide them the opportunities for increasing their income.
To create awareness among amongst 40,000 rural girls & women on issues of Menstrual Hygiene Management.
To provide quality infrastructure in the form of sanitation facilities/changing rooms & incinerators to promote Menstrual Hygiene Management in 40 schools.
To engage 1,000 rural unemployed youths in awareness creation, distribution and marketing thus contribute to the Ministry of Gender and social services policy of access to sanitary towels in all schools in the republic of Kenya.

Expected outcomes

Improved school attendance amongst 40,000 vulnerable girls aged between 10-17 years in 40 schools in the most marginalised counties and informal settlement areas in the main cities i.e. Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa.
Better menstrual hygiene leads to decrease in prevalence of urinary tract infections (URTI) and hence, better reproductive health.
500 women and youth from 10 groups provided with technical skills and business skills needed to produce quality reusable sanitary towels.
1,000 unemployed girls access incomes through distribution and sales of the re-usable sanitary pads (they will be paid a commission for every unit sold)
40 schools equipped with hygienic sanitation facilities/changing rooms and incinerators.
Lessons learnt and examples of best-practice fully documented and disseminated to all stakeholders.

In measuring the success of this project such Indicators as number of women reached, type of sanitary materials used, affordability questions, number of women and girls using the pads, market penetration and adaptation will be assessed. IAF’s ability to obtain a universally affordable cost for the product, community acceptance of the product and how potential risks were mitigated will be crucial.

Main activities

Procurement of equipment and materials needed to manufacture the re-usable pads and distribution of these to 10 women groups/CBOs to start production of the re-usable sanitary pads. These groups will at first be sensitized and trained as needed.
Mobilization, sensitization and awareness creation amongst the targeted 40,000 girls in 40 selected schools on general Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) followed by distribution of 4 pads per girl.
Mobilization, sensitization and training of 1,000 unemployed women and girls on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), sales and marketing of the re-usable sanitary pads.
Procurement and distribution of incinerators and construction of sanitation facilities/changing rooms in 40 targeted schools.
Documentation of lessons learnt and examples of best practice.

Key target beneficiaries

The targeted beneficiaries for this project include the following;

Adolescent girls (11-19 years age)- in school and out of school, these are the most vulnerable amongst the targeted communities considering that the majority of them are unemployed hence limited access to resources to buy sanitary towels.
Women (20-45 years age); these is the age group that is of menstruating category and act as caregivers to their daughters and families, many have victims of unwanted pregnancies and are not in paid employment.
Health workers/Service providers; these is the team whose mandate includes awareness creation on reproductive health including Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM).
School teachers (especially female teachers) and parents- are care givers and advisers of school going girls under their care.
Secondary schools-all the girls in secondary schools are of menstruation age, hence are in dire need of the facilities to support them.
Teenage Mothers and Out-of-school Dropout girls- are faced with the social stigma of taking care of children born out of wedlock and often face extreme economic hardships when undertaking these; the project will mobilize and train them to produce, market and create awareness on the reusable pads and other gender related issues.
Traditional birth attendants and health-extension workers- are opinion leaders in their communities on matters related to reproductive health- are therefore key resource persons.
Women Groups including Special interest Groups like the Disabled and Politicians- excellent messengers for mobilization, sensitization on reproductive health including Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM)
Young out-of-school female entrepreneurs in marginalized communities and Petty traders associations within the female dominated markets will form the core team in marketing the reusable pads out of the school environment.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning(MEAL)

Tracking of projects implementation will be conducted from three levels; IAF will utilize monitoring tools, approaches and indicators mutually discussed and agreed upon with the donor to follow up activities. Monitoring at community level will involve the community members themselves, girls, school administrators, parents and teachers through the use of a feedback mechanism that includes a toll free telephone contact. The project aims for an efficient, cost-effective way to make sure that the monitoring is relevant, and not too much or too few data is collected. Therefore at the start; simple, operational and measurable indicators will be formulated.

As much as possible the monitoring will be undertaken by Project Steering Committee as part of their daily/weekly/monthly reporting routine, in order to observe changes or deviations from the expected. For evaluations, a Mid-term internal review exercise will be conducted, taking into account the findings of the monthly monitoring by officers from IAF, donor and other interested partners. The focus of this exercise will be to check on the implementation of the projects planned, preliminary impact and any challenges faced in the process; the amount of money spent against time schedules; as well as providing technical input where necessary. An internal and external end-of project evaluation will be conducted by an external consultant at the end of the project to assess progress, impact and note changes, and achievements then draw lessons. IAF will organize for an internal evaluation of this project two times throughout the duration of the project.

The documentation will consists of the publication of the findings from the MEAL activities through articles and a blog bi-annually, an end-of project evaluation report as well as a lessons learnt document.

Potential Risks and Mitigation Plan

In designing this project, IAF has made the following assumptions; there is political stability in the country and County, Increased enrolment and retention rates of girls in schools within the targeted project areas, political goodwill and community support that will build up of the project’s future uptake as well as sustainability.

The major risks that may result from the project will be minimized by the project implementers and such risks may cut across to the targeted community, donors, key stakeholders, the product, and the business approach. The donor in this case might be faced with the risks of having to cope up with the changing political environments in Kenya for instance the likelihoods of election related violence’s in 2017-Informal settlements in the three major cities in the country were one of the bedrocks of the opposition which affected market access at the time. These may translate into high transport, importation and clearance costs that may impact negatively on the value for investment; In such a case, IAF shall seek to partner with key Government ministries and agencies to obtain tax exemptions on costs of importation and clearance of the imported machines, materials and these partners shall ensure that they are compliant with the Government’s tax collection strategies.

The risks relating to stakeholders who include; the learning institutions, the community and the local authorities might include; low consumption of the availed products due to cultural beliefs and myths about the use of the product from the communities. These will be mitigated through extensive mobilization and sensitization that will include engagement of the media, religious, teachers and traditional leaders.

The communities may be faced with the need to dig-up extra disposal pits to accommodate the increasing use of the sanitary ware and to counter such risks, IAF shall implement community and stakeholders’ sensitization and awareness sessions to educate the community and other key stakeholders on the importance, the uses and disposal procedures of the product.

On the product, the associated risks would be community stigma on its use and specifically on the unique feature of having to recycle a number of times before disposal, a feature that has not been common with the available sanitary stocks in the shops. Such related stigma and fear of use will be countered by the dissemination facts by IAF programme officers and partners in promoting the new product. The product may encounter the risks of negative publicity and stiff competition from local businesses selling similar products or manufacturers of the disposable pads, such publicity and competition will be addressed ensuring excellent quality and the affordable prizing of the new sanitary ware, in addition to aggressive advertising over the media and other forums.

Finally the business case would face the risks of high operational costs, high County level taxations and expensive operational licensing costs especially form the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and in such cases, IAF shall seek to partner with the relevant County Governments ministries for example Health/Gender& Social services and regulatory agencies and invite them as to be part of the investors into the project.

Categories: Women & Girls