Hope in the Face of the Monthly Visitor

When Gertrude Mwake first started giving sanitary napkins to a few very poor girls she knew in Mutitu, Kitui district, in Kenya’s Eastern Province, she never expected it would become her mission. But as word traveled and more girls and women began requesting the pads every time Gertrude came to visit, she realized there was a real need.

The girls in rural areas like Mutitu lack any access to sanitary products and instead use old cloths, rags, tree leaves, paper and any other materials that can get their hands on. Even if there were pads available to buy, their poverty prevents it — the little money these families have goes toward food.

This situation may sound like more of an inconvenience than a problem, but Gertrude learned otherwise. Most of these girls stay out of school when they are menstruating to avoid the embarrassment of staining their uniforms or having their improvised protections fall apart. It’s not surprising then that girls in this area do not attend secondary school, which seriously limits their employment options. Some get work as laborers on farms and others end up in early marriages. Those who make their way to the cities are in danger of becoming involved in prostitution.

A small thing could make such a big difference in these girls’ lives, but menstruation is taboo in Kenya, so women and girls usually suffer in silence.

Gertrude decided to try to change that. She recently started an NGO called Seed of Development (SOD), which has so far distributed approximately 2,000 packets of pads, each containing 8 pads, to 120 women and girls. The NGO is so new it doesn’t yet have a Website, but its existence is noted on Kenya’s NGO Coordination Board’s list of newly registered NGOs.

Along with distributing sanitary pads, the organization does outreach activities with women and girls, holding discussion groups where they explore topics that usually are not discussed openly. With the girls, SOD discusses sexuality and the risks of sexual activity, while the women focus on taboo subjects such as child labor and menstruation and reflect on the importance of their children’s school attendance. SOD hopes to open up channels of communication between mothers and daughters and allow them to understand their cultural context.

With a simple but effective idea and activities benefiting many girls and women, the NGO is set to do great things. Unfortunately, however, SOD lacks the funding its needs to bring its efforts to scale. Gertrude is seeking funders to help with the activities and support her plans to start manufacturing pads locally, which will keep costs down and allow for greater distribution (Gertrude says SOD could “quite easily target up to 10,000 girls and women in any given month.”). Not only that, but local manufacture would provide local jobs. Sounds like a win-win at that — and every other — time of the month.

To learn more about SOD or help with funding, contact Gertrude at seedofdevelopmentsod@yahoo.co.uk.