ONE GIRL ONE PAD

Hi, we are Florin, Aisha and Shali. We are three sisters, high school students who live in Kenya and we collaborate with our mother who is a writer, educator and activist in trying to make impact and make social change within the neighborhoods of Nairobi. One of the major problems we stumbled upon in Nairobi, is lack of access to sanitary pads for young girls living in low income marginalized communities like the one in Mathare. Mathare is a slum of Nairobi that comprehends nearly 500.000 people.

One of biggest challenges is for girls not having accessibility to proper menstruation products. They also lack proper information about their period and reproductive health. Girls struggle to manage their period as they can't afford to buy sanitary pads. For this reason they often rely on improvised materials like scraps of old clothing, pieces of foam mattress, toilet paper to manage their period, which is highly unhygienic, ineffective and uncomfortable.

Faced with frequent, embarrassing leaks and a susceptibility to recurrent infections, the impact is that f girls and women experience their monthly period as something that prevents them from engaging in daily life – whether this is going to school or work, or carrying out their normal domestic responsibilities.

The campaign ONE GIRL ONE PAD targets 100 girls from the age of 12 who are in their menstruation period , who attend the Mathare Social Justice Center.

After a careful survey, we decided to partner with AfriPad, a company based in Kenya that offer reusable sanitary pads.
One Sanitary Pad Kit consist in 4 sanitary pads (3 maxi pads and 1 super maxi pad) and a storage bag.

AFRIpads Menstrual Kits are made from high-performance textiles and provide effective protection for 12+ months (menstrual cycles), making them a cost-effective and eco-friendly solution. The design is an “all-in-one” pad that buttons securely into a pair of underwear. After use, the pad folds conveniently for easy storage before washing. AFRIpads are ultra-absorbent, natural and unscented.

Each Sanitary Pad Kit costs $ 5,00 so with your contribution we aim to buy 100 sanitary pad's kits for the girls of Mathare Social Justice Center who not only will benefit of the Sanitary Pad Kit, but they will receive a two hour training course in reproductive health and on how to handle with dignity their menstruation period.

We decided to sponsor 100 girls who will receive the Sanitary Pad Kit to use in the course of one year, a pilot number that will serve as a testimony for the rest of the community, spreading information, training families and educators, addressing the importance to have an adequate sanitary pad kit to handle the menstruation period. Through education and live feedback we aim to ensure that families see it as a possible investment for their girls.

The AfriPad Sanitary Kit is also eco friendly. In marginalized areas with underdeveloped waste management infrastructure, pads end up in the environment.

The AfriPad Kit is also cost friendly. If one girl uses 15 disposable sanitary pads per month, this means she would need 195 pads per year which will reach the cost of 1300 Kes (about 13 US$).

The money that we aim to raise, will go to buy 100 sanitary pad's kits and the remaining will be invested for logistic reach out.
Included in the price there will be a two hour training course about menstruation period and reproductive health and a comic pamphlet called GIRL TALK (in English and Kiswahili) to educate girls and their families on breaking the stigma that in Kenyan society is often associated with menstruation.

5$ for one year is equivalent to 0,416 cents per month, 1/3 of the average cost of one cup of coffee per month. For the families in Mathare is a huge amount of money all at once but through a small donation we can make impact in a girl's life so that she can live her menstruation period with dignity.