Florence Akara
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We, as societies, cannot succeed when half of us are being held back!

Guest post by Júlia & Antonio, Founders of Periodo Solidario

Here’s to education, and to making sure that every girl has a voice and can stand for herself.

 

At Periodo Solidario we are fully aware of the struggle that millions of women and girls face around the world (in our own society and also in developing countries) as a consequence of the lack of menstrual hygiene products and education.

 

Periodo Solidario was born under the purpose that all women and girls should have the right to a healthy and positive relationship with their bodies and direct access to menstrual hygiene products to live as healthy as possible. We are a humble small NGO that tries to do as much as possible with the limited resources we have, and we dream big.

The Periodo Solidario Faircup. Proceeds are donated to Femme International.

Taking this idea as a starting point, we created this feminist project because, from our position, it was obvious we needed to do something about it. We started doing research and concluded how overpriced the menstrual cups are in Europe. This gave us the opportunity to think about how we could create a high-quality product that was accessible to everyone and helped the NGO gather funds to make a life change to those girls that most needed it. After months of financial planning, legal struggles and a lot of designing we achieved our objective and launched FairCup.

We then did vast research on which actions could help the most, this urgent need became more visible. We also understood the incredible potential that economic resources have on these projects that work with millions of girls in an interdisciplinary way. After discussing all the possible actions, we decided we wanted to use 100% of the NGO’s profits to help create the positive impact we were looking for.

We searched for an organization that helps women, acts according to the interests of the local communities and studies its impact rigorously. That’s why we chose Femme International as the first NGO we wanted to support. Their 7-year work on more than 11.000 girls across Kenya and Tanzania and the benefits found on the Twaweza project made us realize we had met an organization that clearly is as passionate as we are about changing people’s lives.

Florence Akara, pitching the case for economic and environmental friendly menstrual products in East Africa.

We had the first conversation one year ago with Florence Akara, the managing director at Femme. Her interest in our project and her motivation in the ones she was running made clear that Femme International would be a good partner for Periodo Solidario. At the same time, we were introduced to Rachael Ouko, the Nairobi office manager, who explained her experience at Femme and shared her will to break down the stigma and normalize the natural process that is the menstrual cycle.

We have since then been collaborating with Femme International while working to sell more menstrual cups, gather resources and make a real change. We also believe that sending our profits to Femme is the best idea to support the local communities. Given we advocate for sustainable menstruation products and we aim to reduce as much as possible our CO2 emissions (due to the means of transportation), we decided to transfer our donations instead of physically sending our product to Africa.

Femme beneficiaries with their workbook and Femme Kit complete with a menstrual product of their choice.

Moreover, by giving more Femme Kits, we are encouraging women to be able to share different knowledge by providing an open and secure space to engage in discussions about menstrual health and hygiene and other topics that tend to be socially controversial in most societies. At the same time, we have reached out to a lot of girls by developing an active webpage and Instagram account where we publish educational information, tips on how to use the cup, news, and suggestions on how to deconstruct social prejudices and stigmas surrounding women’s body.”

We are very grateful to be a part of this amazing association. Our most deep respect for the amazing people that work to ensure every girl can meet her rights and access to the same opportunities as men do.

We cannot wait to share this journey with Femme and keep working together to end #periodpoverty!

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Florence Akara
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The “othering” of homeless women and girls is usually naturalized, perpetuating their marginalisation.

Guest post by inspiring superwoman, Elizabeth K. Gimba from “Go with the Flow, Period!”

I am Elizabeth K Gimba from Kenya/South Sudan and currently reside in New York, USA where I am pursuing a major in Neuroscience and minors in French and German. There is an impressive latitude of things I am passionate about; menstrual poverty and its alleviation is one of them.

Last year, I was privileged to be a grant recipient while studying in Freiburg, Germany through one of my projects “Go with the Flow, Period!” on sustainable menstrual cups for homeless women and girls in Nairobi, Kenya. I partnered with Femme International, an organisation that persistently champions for menstrual rights in different regions around Eastern Africa. The project’s aim was to facilitate menstrual education and distribution of sustainable menstrual cups to homeless women and girls in the streets of Nairobi, Kenya and that is exactly what Femme International, and I spent the June of 2019 doing.

We used Twaweza Program workbooks courtesy of Femme International in both English and Swahili to ensure an optimum comprehension of what we would be training the women and girls. The workbooks covered vital topics on the female reproductive system, puberty, personal hygiene, menstruation and the menstrual cycle, managing and tracking periods, Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) and how to manage it, problems associated with menstruation, Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs), Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs), reusable pads, menstrual cups and more.

Beneficiaries of the project funded by Elizabeth Gimba at a shelter in Mlango Kubwa,Nairobi, where an NGO called Joy Divine is helping to house and feed street youth.

I was inspired to carry out the project in the streets because the “othering” of homeless women and girls is usually naturalized thus further perpetuating their marginalisation. This meant that my aim was not only to confront the daily silent necessities of period poverty but to also restore the dignity that all women and girls on the streets rightfully deserved.

Moreover, the project enables us to learn more about the life of menstruating, homeless women and girls through emic perspectives and experiences. Distributing menstrual cups which could last the women a period of up to ten years was one of their inflection points. For most women and girls, it was their first time learning about menstrual cups and this made both our experience and theirs more meaningful. Additionally, as the menstrual cups came in Femme kits we provided the women and girls with bars of soap and at least a pair of underwear each to allow for proper sanitation during their periods.

In essence, the immediate community was very open to supporting our movement and mission and at some point also encouraged their younger daughters to join in the training we gave in order to learn more about menstrual education. This shaped to some extent their perception of menstruation in general and certainly clarified that menstruation is not a shameful phenomenon but rather something natural that they should all embrace and be proud of.

Elizabeth Gimba is the founder of “Go with the flow, Period!” and a young educationist currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience with French and German minors. 

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