Brightening the Shameful Days

Why this project

In much of rural Samburu, menstruation is still met with silence and stigma. Girls regularly miss between three and seven days of school every month, not because they want to, but because they lack the products, the privacy and the support to stay. Over a school year, that is one and a half months of learning lost — and it compounds every year, widening the gap between a girl and her graduation.

Brightening the Shameful Days is our most ambitious response yet. For twelve months, we partner with ten schools across Samburu Central and Samburu East to ensure no girl in those classrooms misses another day because of her period.

The three-tier approach

Our approach is deliberately layered. Products alone are not enough if girls are not taught how to use them confidently; training alone is not enough if teachers and parents are not brought along; none of it sticks if the community at large has not been invited into the conversation.

1. Product access — year-round supply of sanitary kits to 500 girls, replenished through Girls' Health Clubs stocked at each school.
2. Knowledge empowerment — participatory MHM training for 500 girls, plus training for 30 teachers and the revitalisation of 10 Girls' Health Clubs that become peer-led safe spaces.
3. Community engagement — 10 community sensitisation forums, mother-daughter dialogues, and capacity-building sessions for school Boards of Management so the conversation outlives the project.

Specific objectives

1. Procure and distribute a 12-month supply of sanitary kits to 500 girls in 10 partner schools.
2. Conduct MHM training for 500 girls, train 30 teachers on MHM and stigma reduction, and establish or revitalise 10 Girls' Health Clubs.
3. Run 10 community sensitisation forums, mother–daughter dialogues, and BoM capacity-building sessions.

Partner schools

School	Sub-county	Level	Girls
Mwangaza Muslim Secondary	Samburu Central	Secondary	50
Milimani Mixed Secondary	Samburu Central	Secondary	50
Maralal Mixed Secondary	Samburu Central	Secondary	50
Ngari Mixed Secondary	Samburu East	Secondary	50
Ledero Mixed Secondary	Samburu East	Secondary	50
Loikas Mixed Secondary	Samburu East	Secondary	50
Kisima Mixed Secondary	Samburu Central	Secondary	50
Ledero Primary	Samburu East	Primary	50
Loikas Primary	Samburu East	Primary	50
St Marys Primary	Samburu Central	Primary	50

Implementing partners

We work with the Ministry of Education (County and Sub-County), the Ministry of Health through its CHAs and CHPs, each school's Board of Management, the Kijiji Cup Foundation, Rotary Club, Grevy's Zebra Trust, and several local banks that host pad bank accounts on our behalf.

Where your contribution lands

• KES 1,500 covers one girl for a full year of dignity kits
• KES 7,500 covers five girls for a full year
• KES 15,000 trains one teacher on menstrual health management and stigma reduction
• KES 75,000 establishes and stocks one Girls' Health Club
• KES 660,000 funds a full school — fifty girls, all year

Track our live results on the impact dashboard.