Project Summary:

This project aims at addressing the alarming dropout rates among female students in Uganda’s rural areas as a result of period poverty, and the staunch stigma surrounding menstruation in these communities.
The two-pronged approach involves creating reusable sanitary pads, bundling them with anti-bacterial soaps, and distributing them among 1000 school girls, each receiving 2 pads and 2 anti-bacterial soaps, in 6 schools across 3 of Uganda’s most rural and poorest districts; Kiboga,Mayuge and Rakai.

Implementation:

The project will be implemented across three districts in Uganda — Mayuge, Kiboga, and Rakai, targeting 1,000 girls in three selected schools, with one school targeted in each district. The execution will involve a carefully planned schedule, dedicating three days for travel to each district to deliver the packs of reusable sanitary pads and anti-bacterial soaps to the girls, and to effectively hold follow-up awareness sessions to the school fraternities.
Awareness sessions involving comprehensive education on safe pad usage to prevent infections to girls will be conducted before giving out the pads. Menstruation awareness sessions will also extend to the entire school fraternity, conducted with the permission of school administration, with the specific goal of challenging and dismantling prevalent societal stigma surrounding menstruation, especially among boys in rural areas.

Anticipated Results:

In the short term, the project envisions enabling 1,000 schoolgirls to attend school consistently, unburdened by menstrual concerns. The reusable nature of the 2 sanitary pads distributed to each student will sustain each girl for at least a year, alleviating the financial strain associated with disposable alternatives. We also anticipate that conducting awareness sessions at schools will greatly help in breaking the staunch stigma associated with menstruation in Uganda’s rural areas.

Long-term expectations involve inspiring similar projects nationwide, fostering a more environmentally sustainable approach to menstrual hygiene on a broader scale. The ripple effect of such initiatives is anticipated to contribute to a paradigm shift, promoting menstrual health as an integral component of educational equity.

This project breaks the stigma surrounding menstruation, fostering a supportive environment for schoolgirls through open dialogue, reduced shame, and increased understanding. This cultural shift empowers girls to manage their menstrual health confidently and catalyzes broader societal change by normalizing conversations around menstruation. Most importantly, the initiative ensures that girls can attend school consistently and serves as a catalyst for empowering young girls through education, resulting in improved academic performance and increased opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Support this project:

You can support this project in 3 ways;

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2. Make a Donation below
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Spread the word, share our message, and together, let’s keep her in school, so that she has the chance to pursue her dreams. Act now, because every girl’s education matters.

Background

Dialogue is the very heart of shaping our society. It is the starting point for many meaningful, sustainable and beneficial collaborations that bring greater growth and development in the quest for positive change.
However, despite youth having the will, passion and capability to make change, many of them lack the skill of holding an effective dialogue – something that is holding them back from transforming their passions into meaningful action.
This is a big threat in the struggle to ensure more youth engagement in decision-making processes.
This project aimed to primarily address this incompetence by building a culture of dialogue among young people.

Project Summary:

"Dialogue for the Future," was a 12-month long project of the year 2023 running from January to december. It was held on every second last Satuarday of the month.
This project aimed at equipping youth with formidable dialoging skills and knowledge so as to meaningfully take part in society defining meetings and discussions. It further aimed at deepening youths' understanding of dialogue as a critical aspect of constructive engagement and action by providing them a safe platform where they can share their experiences, knowledge and shed light on their projects.

Implementation:

Our dialogues were never events, but continuous processes in which youth got inspiration, motivation and knowledge to develop themselves and keep driving their actions of change. In these dialogues, young people interacted through speaking and listening to one another to understand the issues and challenges that they face, and together formulated ways of solving them.
We created channels—both online and in person—for young people to drive conversations. We used zoom and social media platforms like facebook and Instagram to work directly with young people to elevate their stories.
Every month, we held atleast one dialogue for each SDG. This means that for a month with three SDGs, the least number of dialogues was three. We arranged these SDGs in such a way that next moth's dialogue connected to the one before as shown below

Month	Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
January	GOAL 5: Gender Equality & GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
February	GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
March	GOAL 1: No Poverty
April	GOAL 13: Climate Action
May	GOAL 2: Zero Hunger & GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
June	GOAL 4: Quality Education & GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
July	GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure & GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
August	GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
September	GOAL 15: Life on Land
October	GOAL 14: Life Below Water
November	GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
December	GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities & GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goals

Impact

'Dialogue For The Future' stimulated more than 90% of of our 4,000 members to take on actions at an individual stage by establishing their own initiatives to solve the most pressing problems in their communities. They have further embarked on volunteering and internships to actively engage in bettering their communities. This highlights the tangible shifts in behaviors that SftG is facilitating among young people.