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Project information
Education All Month, Every Month
African girls miss school every month - just because they're girls!
Girls' education is being compromised due to the lack of sanitary towels. Something which affects half the world's population has been overlooked - until now.
Rolling programme
Charity information: African Children's Fund

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Need
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. -
Aims
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
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
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
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
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
Budget - Project Cost: £23,025
Loading graph....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 -
Background
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. -
Why Us?
Why Us?
We have already established strong links with primary schools in Thika due to the Porridge Clubs we currently run in 8 schools. Our Porridge Clubs provide around 1,500 children with a meal at school each day - and impressive results around a reduction in absenteeism and improved examination results are testimony to its success.
Our connections with Watoto Kwanza - a local NGO - also mean their solution will be accepted and bought into by the communities which the project is supporting.Read more about the Charity running this project.
People
Peter Nganga
The chair of Watoto Kwanza and headteacher of St Patrick's Special School.
Dee Tyrer
Director of African Children's Fund, Dee ensures links are maintained with Watoto Kwanza and that the project is performing as expected.
Tamsyn Wymer
Continued promotion and fundraising for the project, based in the UK.