Women's Sewing Project in Kakuma Refugee Camp

Refugee women and young girls who experience period poverty are always traumatized and unable to purchase the menstrual products when their days of need arrive every monthand, in many cases, this means that they cannot go to school or work or otherwise participate freely in daily life activities such as, going for food ratios and water points. For many years, in Kakuma Refugee Camp period poverty has caused physical torture and low self-esteem for school going girls who experience unexpected periods/menstruations in school which comes in with a lot of stereotype, stigma and body shame for soiling the school uniforms which has led to psychological stress and sometimes depression.

Shameof menstruating, soiling of uniform and the stigma surrounding periodshas contributed to early marriages, teenage pregnancy and school dropouts because parents are not able to afford sanitary towels and due to poverty, they will l prefer to buy food instead of sanitary towels.

With support of GlobalGiving through the women sewing project, this has enabled two women from the refugee camp to be trained on making of the reusable sanitary towels and multipurpose soap, the training has greatly improvedknowledge on making reusable sanitary towels using cheaply available materials and skills on menstruation education.This has also enhanced self-esteem for the school going girls and women at the camp as they can easily access the pads during that time of the month