For the year 2020, "Girls Health Matter" aims to impact 2,000 vulnerable school girls across selected rural and peri-urban regions in Nigeria by providing reusable sanitary pads sustainable for three years. Also, providing school girls the opportunity of vocational training thus creating actual jobs for local women within the rural and peri-urban communities, schools and hospitals.
There is a rise in the global demands for greater understanding of the challenges menstruating school girls face and associated potential risks of unhygienic maintenance. Findings from UNICEF study across 12 schools in both rural and peri-urban areas shows that menstruating schoolgirls in Nigeria are faced by many challenges which affect their abilities to understand and manage their menstrual activity in a dignified and hygienic way. With 2000 girls we hope to make a change.
ACF's goal is to provides free reusable and sustainable sanitary products for 2000 girls in rural and peri-urban communities. The female students get trained in menstrual hygiene management which would include handwashing to reduce and prevent communicable disease; maintenance on sanitary napkins for 2-3 years and safe alternative access by making emergency sanitary napkin. Female teachers will also be taught to be culturally sensitive to students about body change and hygiene.
The project will educate 2000 school girls to accept menstruation as being a natural part of a woman's body and a good sign of health. The education process will help young girls accept puberty without seeing it as a taboo; thus educating the community around them. Our long term goal is to train the girls on how to make the napkins for personal use and income purposes to create revenue for the community at large.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
