Girl Power Gulu addresses menstrual health barriers for young girls in northern Uganda by giving them feminine hygiene products and educational courses on reproductive health. This program provides women with knowledge of menstruation and safe sex, empowering them to stay in school and advancing the well-being of families and communities.
The future of young girls in Uganda is in jeopardy because of a natural bodily function all women experience: menstruation. Uganda faces tremendous challenges with reproductive health and family planning due to a cultural stigma around women's health. Some of these challenges include: early teenage pregnancies, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, inadequate access to feminine hygiene products, and an overall lack of information on basic concepts concerning reproductive health due to its social taboo.
Girl Power Gulu empowers young girls to reach their full potential in the classroom and in society. The program already reaches over 700 young girls between the ages of 9-22 years old with basic reproductive health lessons, comprehensive sexual education and distribution of sanitary pads. We partner with 'She for She' to create reusable sanitary pads to help women handle menstruation in order to give them the tools to stay in school.
The demand for Girl Power Gulu lessons is extremely high across northern Uganda, so we aim to expand the audience to 1,000 additional women. An aggressive cycle of incomplete schooling and lives of poverty has been sustained for generations of women in this region. By providing the educational tools and physical supplies to handle menstruation for hundreds of women, communities are irreversibly strengthened. It is past time to change the realities of menstruation for young girls in Uganda.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
