September 10, 2008
Dear friends,
ZanaAfrica, and our sanitary pads project, comes as a result of many years of working with girls in Kenya , seeing problems, and searching for solutions. And it comes from living in Kenya for more than seven years now, and revising the way I see the world in light of new information and new experiences.
When I worked for five years with former street children, our organization’s biggest costs per child were bread and sanitary pads. I realized this was a national problem, that girls across the country went through horrible things during their periods.
This to me was a question of social justice. The poverty that mires 64% of Kenyans is unjust. To allow girls and their future families to sink further into poverty because they lack the funds necessary to stem the flow of their monthly menstruation and sit out of school four days a month– I cannot be the person who knows but remains on the sidelines. I believe the words of my high school mentor, Denise Fuller, who said, “the easiest words for someone to say are ‘I don’t know’. Because, once we know, we are required to do something.”
This is my attempt to do something, and we have a good team to make change. Because this issue is solvable, if the right minds and the right people come together to solve it. It is like a large box: it has a ceiling, and walls, it is huge, but it is definable; and, therefore, it is solvable.
The question for me then became one of discovering the lowest-cost solution for sanitary pads and their distribution: to simultaneously retain the largest percentage of students through providing sanitary pads; equip the students with leadership skills; reduce costs of sanitary pads to ensure more families are able to afford sanitary pads for their daughters; and, protect the environment.
Through ZanaA, we suggest a methodology to cascade sexual maturation protection from policy to national implementation. With the Ministry of Education’s endorsement and backing, ZanaA’s partnership can transform from one of seeking to distribute sanitary pads and provide girls with health education and life skills to a 21st-century venture able to simultaneously address multiple needs by various sectors.
In such a partnership, the Ministry of Education and the Government of Kenya would be world-renowned as finding the ultimate solution to keeping girls in school, a replicable country-wide solution and a model to offer other countries in Africa and the world over. This is a goal we are delighted to work toward. And one in which your help can go a long way – you too can be a part of the solution. For only 650 Kenya shillings or $8.67, you can keep just one girl in school for the year with 12 packets of sanitary pads (10 pads per packet) and three pairs of underwear. Who knows what she might become when she grows up?
The implementation of sanitary pads provision is a great challenge. However, with the right partners, it is within reach. And with the youth depending on us, we cannot afford to fail them.
Thank you for your interest, and your partnership.
Megan
