Empower Women and Girls through Menstrual Health

We have reached the half-way point in our historic menstrual cup pilot in Burkina Faso.

We are 6 months in to the first major menstrual cup project of its kind in the country.

Here are some highlights of what we've accomplished so far:

• BARKA partnered with dozens of local comunity health centers and associations working in the menstrual health sector
• Project leaders met with key stakeholders in the government and NGOs working in the field to inform them of the project, bring them on board as advocates, and to invite their feedback
• There has been extensive work with the Ministry of Health to not only create a convention between BARKA and the ministry that will guide our collaboration, but also with the Ethics Committee to approve our methodology and how we collect information, and the National Pharmaceutical Committee in order to establish national standards around menstrual cups in order to approve cups for future national distribution
• Most significantly, we completed our Stage 1 training, led by implementation partner Menstru'elles, and taught largely by our Master Trainer from technical partner Femme International. This was a comprehensive 16-hour training over two days in which 30 community health workers were trained about menstrual health, cups, and how to use them. In Ocober after they've used hte cups for 4 months and achieved a level of "cup confidence", we will meet for our Stage 2 training when they will be trained to go out into their communities to distribute cups to women and girls in need.

We are also making great strides to expand this pilot to other countries within West Africa and are in the process of creating partnerships with NGOs and government ministries in Ivory Coast, Senegal, Liberia and Ghana!

It's an exciting time and it gives us great pleasure to see the impact this project is already having. Menstrual cups are a gamechanger and will help improve women's lives immensely.

Thanks for your support of this important project at a time when it is most needed.

Barka!