Making Sanitary Supplies Empowers Girls, Kenya

In rural East Africa, education about the changes that an adolescent girl experiences extends beyond the home. Through Asante Africa’s Wezesha Vijana Program, girls are provided with information and skills to shift menstruation from stigma to social acceptance.

The Wezesha Vijana Program works to provide safe spaces for adolescent boys and girls, reduce absenteeism, especially during menstruation for girls, and increase their confidence to boldly face life challenges. 

One key way that the program achieves this goal is to instruct students in the making and selling of reusable sanitary pads. In order to do this, Asante Africa Foundation engaged local tailors in Turkana, Kenya to train and empower girls with the skills for making reusable pads. 

In the pay it forward spirit, this successful strategy has been adopted by partner schools as a way to build youth self-esteem as well as generate much needed income to support youth-club efforts in being self-sufficient.