This month we ran menstrual health training at Kyambusya Comprehensive School in rural Kenya and gave Wings Poa reusable sanitary pad kits to 49 girls, which takes us to 1,004 girls holding a kit. Teacher Florence told us the pads the government had supplied had run out, so the school had been buying pads for girls who could not afford them, which had been a big challenge.
The girls were excited to receive their kits. One of them told us what she had taken from the training: "Today I have known that it is important for me to stay clean and to observe menstrual hygiene, especially during my period."
The 12 LitMoms, local women who sew the kits, kept working on the parts they could finish while we waited on the delayed waterproof PUL fabric, which slowed production. It finally arrived on 23 October. We spent Ksh 38,535 (about £220) this month: Ksh 29,535 on the LitMoms' sewing, Ksh 5,000 on staff time, and Ksh 1,000 each on transport for distribution, monitoring, stationery and printing, and phone calls.
Schools have now closed for the end-of-year holidays and national exams, and will not reopen until January 2027. We are planning the next training sessions and kit distributions with each school for when they return, and in the meantime the LitMoms are finishing the remaining kits.