Woman-led non-profit sparking hope in Borno communities

In Niger, an initiative challenging menstrual stigma is promoting knowledge and hygiene through community engagement and mentorship. Since 2019, the foundation has reached over 20 schools, 35 communities, more than 3,000 women and girls.

The Pad-A-Girl project by the Citizen Participation Advancement and Awareness Initiative (CPAAI) helps those experiencing period poverty, particularly girls in primary and secondary schools and underprivileged women. CPAAI offers washable pads that are good for five years, installed pad banks in area schools and taught the women and girls how to create washable pads themselves. The program launched in 2020 and has since helped more than 7,000 women and girls across 25 schools and communities.

The Sebastian Indian Social Projects (SISP) works with socio-economically disadvantaged communities, providing social services like healthcare and employment assistance with a primary focus on educating youth. SISP has focused on educating the local female population, which has helped empower them economically and led to several women receiving jobs outside of their village. SISP has also educated several students who were forced to drop out of traditional school and provides supplementary activities along with their standard education, such as skating and coding clubs.

Brencare Foundation’s Safe Space Project meets once a week within local schools to provide menstrual health, hygiene, sexual and gender-based violence education to girls in need. So far, the Foundation has reached about 5,000 women and girls across several communities with its education efforts.

Tucheze Mtaani provides sexual reproductive health education support to young, school-age girls, specifically those in remote, rural areas where access to menstrual products and sexual education is scarce. The group provides educational resources, mentorships and counseling, as well as access to pads and sanitary supplies within schools to ensure girls feel supported at school and no longer have to miss days or drop out altogether.

CARE Schools are free, half-public, half-private institutions that provide lessons in both Urdu and English. The schools teach both boys and girls, sometimes in co-ed classes, to promote gender equality and provide girls with equal opportunities in their education and increase their job prospects.

Girls&More educates girls on menstruation, puberty and menstrual hygiene. The group travels to schools and throughout rural communities to talk to girls and provide them with sanitary pads and other resources they may struggle to access.

PLAN International is a global organization that works to increase the rights and access to gender-responsive, adolescent-friendly, and inclusive menstrual health management. The organization set up Pad Banks in schools and has also partnered with local advocacy groups to train and educate young women and girls on menstrual health and hygiene, all in hopes to address stigma, misinformation, and period poverty.

Since 2012, the government has required schools from primary to university to create a Girl’s Room, stocked with pads, pain medicine, a bed, soap and water for girls to seek refuge in during their menstrual cycles, in an effort to address the issue of period poverty. By the end of 2021, 2,046 primary schools across the country had established a room for girls, representing 55.4% of all primary schools in the country. Schools with a Girl’s Room have also reported reduced rates of absenteeism and dropouts.

A Nigeria-based NGO is setting out to address period poverty by providing those in need with reusable sanitary napkins and also teaching them how to make the products themselves, all while educating them on menstrual hygiene and working to reduce the stigma surrounding periods.