Women's Action Center

Vital Stats

Alexandra C

Washington, DC

people helped500
People Doing It 35

The Problem

Young girls and women of Kayafungo do not have readily available sanitary pads to use during their menstrual cycle and are reduced to using unsanitary bits of cloth. This practice is ineffective to stop leakage, requires females to miss school monthly and, coupled with a lack of access to clean water, is unhygienic and breeds infection. Female youth are left to wonder what is happening to their bodies at puberty with no one to ask for an explanation or advice. Such topics are not discussed at home. My project will provide girls and women access to clean and sterile pads to use during their menstrual cycle. There is a lack of accessible, inexpensive soap in the community, which has led to an increase of disease transmission especially in schools. In addition, the women of Kayafungo have little to no understanding of finances or how to run a business. Research shows that when a woman gains money through a successful business or earns a wage, her family enjoys a better life because she directly reinvests her earnings in her family. Decreasing rates of domestic violence are also linked to a woman earning an income. The women of Kayafungo are in desperate need of business education and empowerment within their homes to solve the pervasive health challenges in their lives. These were the many health and sanitation issues I discovered while I was a volunteer intern with ThinkImpact, and experiencing life in Kayafungo, a rural community in southeastern Kenya that is devastated by poverty and poor sanitation. My commitment to health improvement and women’s empowerment solidified during my assessment of the community as I met a powerful female leader named Grace Chihanga. Grace is a passionate advocate on behalf of young female students who routinely miss one week of school per month because of their menstruation cycle. Working with Grace and through a series of community focus groups I learned that female reproductive health is not adequately included in the school curriculum. Together Grace and I formed a women’s group dedicated to improving the health and the lives of the women living in Kayafungo, with the first endeavor being to establish a sustainable soap business using local materials.

Plan of Action

“Kayafungo Mungano Women’s Group” (KMWG) which I helped to start, will be the vehicle for making this project a reality. The 30 women that make up the KMWG come from various villages within the community and each woman offers a diverse skill set and a passion for improving health and sanitation in Kayafungo. In 2009, together we started a soap-making business. During the first week we produced 250 bars of soap from local materials and sold them at the market, providing sanitation to approximately 500 people. Every single bar of soap was sold during our first business day, grossing 3,000 Kenyan Shillings, equivalent to $USD43. With the majority of the community living on under $USD1 a day, we are proud of our social enterprise. Part of the revenue was used to register the KMWG with the government, and to purchase more soap supplies to continue the soap business. This project model is scalable and has the capacity to directly affect the 40,000 people living in Kayafungo and can even be replicated in neighboring communities. Since initiating this project, over 1,000 people in the United States have learned about the KMWG and their Women’s Action Center endeavor through a letter campaign, email blasts, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and during fundraising events. It is my duty to inform and educate others about female health and reproductive rights, as well as how sanitation affects educational opportunities and the community as a whole. Upon arrival in the Kayafungo community in summer 2010, I will assess the progress of work by the women since my internship a year prior. In the first four months, we will conduct trainings to teach key members in the community how to facilitate workshops about health topics. Additionally, the women in KMWG will be trained in financial literacy and business development so they can effectively run their soap-making and sanitary pad business. During the fifth month, KMWG will host sanitation and reproductive health education programs in schools, including hand-washing demonstrations, sexual health education classes and distribution of sanitary pads to girls. To promote their sanitation efforts, KMWG will facilitate a community-wide hand-washing awareness day including festivities, dancing, skits and hand-washing demonstrations. In honor of World AIDS day on December 1, 2010, KMWG will host a large testing and education event in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The Women's Action Center will be constructed as funds are available.