Happy International Women’s Day from Made With Hope!
Happy International Women’s Day from all the team at Made With Hope!
Here at Made With Hope we know that in order for women to lead their lives with the power and agency to make their own choices, they must first be supported as girls. That’s one of the reasons why our Girls Empowerment programme was first launched. So, in celebration of International Women’s Day and of all the girls and women of Tanzania, we thought we would share a little bit more about our programme and what it entails.
What is the Girls Empowerment project?
The core of our Girls Empowerment project is supporting the girls in our rural communities to continue to pursue education. We know how vital education is in transforming a young woman’s life, and therefore employ a range of tactics to try and promote education for girls across the communities we work with.
A key way in which we do this is our Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Programme. This project sees us, alongside our on-the-ground partner Femme International, provide training in key issues about Menstrual Hygiene Management to young girls. The topics like puberty, personal hygiene, pier education etc. are covered in Femmes project workbook. We conduct four days training with students and on the final day, we distribute sanitary products to them. We also teach them how to use the products effectively and how to keep them hygienic.
As part of our MHM project, we have also recently delivered our Training of Teachers project, in which we work alongside the local teachers so that they can continue to educate their classes about menstruation and destigmatize this taboo topic.
Another key focus has been the building of period friendly toilets that provide safety, security and privacy enabling the girls to stay in school whilst on their period, and not miss out on valuable learning opportunities.
What impact has it made?
The team at Made With Hope are incredibly pleased with the impact the Girls Empowerment project has achieved. It has increased access to education for over 400 girls, with 14 period friendly toilets having been built as well. This work has aided young girls in the community to remain in education and widen the choices they can make.
Looking forward…
As we use this International Women’s Day to reflect on our Girls Empowerment project, the Made With Hope team are committed to continuing to help the girls within the communities we work and to find more ways that empower them to make their own choices.
With this year's theme for International’s Women’s Day being ‘choose to challenge’, we hope we can play a part in providing the future women of Tanzania with the ability to make their own choices and challenge any power structures or societal norms that stand in their way.
Happy International Women’s Day all!
