Education All Month, Every Month

Need

Far too many girls in Africa miss out on education just because of the lack of a sanitary towel. Missing a week's schooling each month has a massive impact on a child's progress, especially in Africa.

Schools are often over-crowded with many children in very close proximity to one another, and in her culture, this can make the situation of a young girl having her period - with no sanitary towel or even underwear - impossible.

The result: loss of education, hope and future.

Solution

African Children's Fund will empower girls by providing them with sanitary towels, underwear, new toilet blocks and hand washing facilities. Education programmes will run so that girls - and boys - understand exactly what is happening during menstruation.

A small monthly donation will keep a girl in school.

Aim 1

To commence a pilot project in 4 schools in the Thika area, supporting around 200 girls

Activities

» Source local sanitary towel and underwear suppliers
» Commence education programme with Health Options Kenya
» Allocate a small 'responsibility allowance' to teachers administering the programme
» Commence supply via our Kenyan partner NGO Watoto Kwanza

What success will look like

Absenteeism among beneficiaries decreases with ultimately more girls passing their end of primary school examinations

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Aim 2

To expand the pilot project to include new toilet blocks and handwashing facilities

Activities

» Liaise with schools to identify their sanitation requirements
» Source local builders and obtain quotations and a timeframe for completing the work
» Raise funds for the required levels of capital expenditure

What success will look like

Reduced infection and illness from poor hygiene

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Aim 3

To expand Education All Month, Every Month to other pupils and schools in the surrounding area

Activities

» Review the project in the pilot schools to identify whether any changes are required & implement before rolling project out to further schools
» Provide additional resources to pilot schools where initial funding does not cover all girls in the programme
» Expand to other schools that currently fall into the Watoto Kwanza porridge club programme
» Consider expanding project to additional schools or countries based on experiences of implementation and funding available

What success will look like

Continual gradual increase in the number of monthly beneficiaries

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Aim 4

To encourage monthly donors to support the project promoting the benefits of girls' education

Activities

» Promote the initiative through online media - covering websites, news blogs and social media
» Seek local and national media coverage &/or public endorsement of the project from organisations or individuals
» Provide regular progress updates to existing supporters through email newsletters including real-life case studies

What success will look like

Increased funding and awareness throughout the UK

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Impact

The 'ripple effect' of a project of this nature will have a positive impact on future generations of children as well as the immediate project beneficiaries.

Research shows that an educated girl is more likely to be literate, healthy and survive into adulthood... as are her children. An extra year of primary school is likely to increase a girl's wages by 10-20% when she is of working age. And an educated girl is less likely to marry while she is still a child.

Risk

We are aware that menstruation is still very much a 'taboo' subject in parts of East Africa and it is therefore essential that teachers, parents and the children buy-in to the solution for it to work.

To overcome this risk, the solution has been devised by school headteachers with our Kenyan partner NGO - Watoto Kwanza - which we feel gives the project the maximum chance of obtaining a successful outcome.

Reporting

Project updates will be regularly reported to donors and other interested parties through several channels:

* Monthly email newsletters
* Ongoing blog posts
* Social media updates on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
* Presentations, talks and displays to interested groups

Budget - Project Cost: £23,025

	Amount	Heading	Description
	£7,300	Sanitary Towels	Estimated annual supply for 200 girls
	£2,500	Underwear	Estimated annual supply for 200 girls
	£1,225	Responsibility Allowance	For 1 teacher in 4 schools
	£12,000	Construction	Toilets & handwashing facilities in 4 schools

Current Funding / Pledges

Source	Amount
Shop operations	£1,000	Guaranteed
Individual donors	£500	Guaranteed

Location

Thika, Kenya is a bustling industrial town (calling itself the ‘The Birmingham of Kenya’). It is approximately 40 kilometres north-east of Nairobi, with a population of 350,000 people by day..

Beneficiaries

Education All Month, Every Month has direct and indirect beneficiaries:

Direct beneficiaries - 200 girls in the pilot phase with a focus on those whose families cannot afford to buy sanitary towels for them.

Indirect beneficiaries - the families of the 200 girls who can continue sending their daughters to school; future generations of the direct beneficiaries' children who will be more likely to be literate, healthy & survive into adulthood due to their mothers' education.