Access to Menstrual Products in East Africa

It is 2025, Yay!! 

We are here again and hoping to keep on not changing lives but pushing forward our mission of supporting the rural and overlooked community, especially women, to fight the stigma and shame that comes with menstruation, which is just an ordinary biological process that happens to their bodies.

The past three months have been nothing short of doing the community engagement and outreaches. We had an opportunity to engage with one of the women's community groups in one of the overlooked communities in the Moshi Rural area. The outreach was conducted in Mikocheni- Moshi rural community, involved 2 facilitators and both Maasai women of reproductive age and non-reproductive age (elders and children), aimed to provide health education on menstruation, safe practices on the use of supportive materials (generally) during menstruation, specific education on the use of re-usable pads as well as menstrual cups, and distribution of re-usable pads, menstrual cups, underwear, and handkerchiefs.

There was free participation among members of the targeted group, as anyone was allowed to ask and respond to different questions about menstrual health and its supportive materials to and from facilitators, respectively. After the workshop session with the proven understanding about menstrual health on the safe use of re-usable pads as well as menstrual cups, there was a free distribution of re-usable pads, menstrual cups (per one’s choice), underwear and handkerchiefs to all with and above the reproductive age for themselves and their daughters respectively.

The challenge met was the new exposure (unawareness) of menstrual cups to many members of the targeted group; this led to more priority on reusable pads than menstrual cups, although some opted for menstrual cups despite the new exposure.

We are also looking forward to starting to involve girls and women with disabilities in the workshops because it is one of the most overlooked groups worldwide. The group also has the right to proper education on MHM, the right to health services, the right to sanitation and water, the right to work, the right to non-discrimination and gender equality, like any other group.  We also should be reminded that the ability for women and girls to manage menstruation freely without stigma, hygienically, and with dignity, directly ties into our human rights.

Let's hope 2025 gets us to where we are hoping to reach as the community that aims to drive change.