Pad Project.

For girls in United States, it is impossible to imagine attending school as an adolescent without the basic necessities of underwear and sanitary products.  However, this is the reality for many girls in Kenya, home to the Maasai people, a semi-nomadic pastoralist community.

Menstruation without these items means many girls have no choice, but to stay at home or confined to their dorms for 5-6 days with each monthly cycle.  The impact of such frequent absenteeism results in lower educational achievements and often leads to girls dropping out of school before completing the KCPE - the Kenyan Primary Certificate.

For Maasai girls who stay in school early marriage may be delayed, but poor performance and absenteeism due to menstruation often leads parents to disregard the benefits of education. Without school, girls as young as nine are subjected to childhood marriage.

Tabibu Africa, working with Days for Girls, is working to create girl-friendly learning environments for some of the most isolated school children in Kenya. Together and with the help of many women in the US, we will be distributing washable sanitary pad kits for 200 school girls attending Nkoilale School, on the Maasai Mara.

This project sets out to ensure primary age school girls who are enrolled in school, stay in school, perform well and continue to secondary and higher institutions of learning.

 For most girls, getting their first period is often a trying time, but for girls in rural Kenya it can mean an end to education. Through Tabibu Africa’s pad project we hope to improve the school learning environment by providing sanitary towels, underwear, hygiene supplies and the delivery of sexual maturation training.