MENSTRUAL HEALTH

Motherly Heart foundation designed the program to support girls in schools, and in 2018 till to date , our Menstrual hygiene team have been visiting the less privileged communities specifically schools to support in overcoming the challenges surrounding Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) through the following ways; 

• We support through giving them knowledge about menstrual health. The role of parents is to give basic knowledge but information is minimal. Culture locks men and boys from women’s menstrual issues. And also teachers give limited information to girls. Therefore our team always teach and provide necessary information about MHM to the school girls and Teachers. We always emphasize the need of clean sanitation facilities, clean water, proper waste disposal facilities for girls in schools. We also discourage the stigma arising from Men and Boys, so we encourage the men and boys to support the women and girls on issues of menstrual health not despising them. 
• Motherly Heart Foundation supplies free Menstrual Health materials and provide training on how to use them, items like sanitary pads, tampons, sanitary wear, reusable pads, soap to the girls in schools. Last year alone, we supplied Menstrual health materials to 400 girls in Napak and Moroto districts of  karamoja, and this helped in maintaining the girl child in school. Our intervention also helped girls and women to stop using pieces of cloth as alternative. According to a teacher in Karamoja, he said the use of pieces of cloth is because of the high costs of sanitary materials and due to the economic challenges especially in rural areas . 

The impact through Motherly heart foundation on MHM so far has been transformative, “parents begun to support their daughters encouraging them to prioritise their health and education, teenage pregnancies and early marriages have declined, through our trainings- girls feel empowered to openly discuss menstruation breaking the silence that had once masked their experiences”, Suzan Aleper, senior woman teacher noted. 

Motherly heart foundation is working to respond to MHM-related barriers that girls face. Our goal is for you to partner with us and we make a difference by increasing the number of beneficiaries for the menstrual products, and also to work upon the girl’s dream of having at least a clean, hygienic toilet for women and girls to manage Menstruation.

Moreso through your Partnerships and Donations, we are looking upon empowering girls and boys with skills in making their own reusable sanitary pads as away of improving attendance and retention of girls in school. The main goal is to influence positively the existing attitudes and beliefs that can contribute to gender- based violence by promoting views on menstruation as a positive and health part of adolescent growth.  Motherly Heart Foundation intends to build on the existing MHM research to develop a multi-sectoral approach to MHM aligning with education, health, WASH, to intervene for healthy MHM for women and girls beyond the school environment.