Menstrual Dignity for Refugee Women

"It wasn't always easy, but it was an incredible period of growth and joy". Bekah reflects back on her year developing monitoring & evaluation tools with the Days for Girls team in the Uganda office. Although few things sound as dry and boring as "data" or "monitoring", this is in many ways the crux of menstrual hygiene work around the globe. Why? Because there are so many testimonies and anecdotes to show the incredible impact that menstrual hygiene resoures, or lack thereof, can have on a girl or woman's life, and yet little adequate data to support this in the eyes of major stakeholders such as governments, donor organizations, and other major decision makers. In particular, the challenges that refugee women face in particular are even less studied, and perhaps even more pressing. 

As you have read in our previous reports, we've had two tremendous opportunities to support refugee women with menstrual hygiene resources - through the development of a Micro-Enterprise in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement in western Uganda, and through a large scale distribution of DfG Kits in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, also in western Uganda. Interacting with the women and men who made these projects possible has been life changing for the entire team, and it has taken us to an exciting new point in our project: evaluation. While we are ready to drive full speed ahead towards more impact and more girls reached, we also value the importance of taking stock of where we are, what has been achieved, and where we can improve. 

Through the efforts that Bekah lead over this past year, we now have a set of unique monitoring & evaluation tools that are giving us important data about the program results. For instance, because of these tools, we know that Angels Care Micro-Enterprise, in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement, has already sold 45 DfG Kits since the last reporting period - and plans to increase this number substantially following our Micro-Enterprise Support Workshop. With these tools, we also have the ability to travel back to Kyangwali in a few months to measure how many girls are still using their DfG Kits and what the impact has been. These basic statistics can paint a powerful picture of what is happening - and what still needs to be done, both by DfG and the larger menstrual hygiene management community. Now, that is something to celebrate!