Fight Period Poverty and Climate Change in Ghana

**URGENT NEED FOR DONATION**


The climate crisis, while a distant concept for some, is a harsh reality for millions worldwide. Rising temperatures have seen regions across the world dry up, resulting in terrible heat waves and flash floods that have left many communities around the world unable to grow crops.

Rural communities affected by this lack of arable land are often left without a source of income for months on end, placing huge economic strain on families. Ultimately, families are forced to engage in rural to urban migration, while absenteeism from school and gender disparities also see dramatic increases within communities. This is the case in Kandiga, a village in Upper-East Ghana where PeriodLink and Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO) have been working. Questionnaires carried out within the Kurugu community in Kandiga suggested that many school girls could not afford hygienic menstrual health products when family income was low, specifically in the dry season. This situation of period poverty, along with the widespread droughts mean that many young women and girls are having to miss school on a regular basis both in Kurugu and the Global South. In the Kurugu community, 66.7% of girls miss a week of school every month. 

So... PeriodLink x GAYO are launching a new project with the support and ongoing involvement of the local community, to tackle period poverty, increase access to potable drinking water and help build resilience within frontline communities of the climate crisis. But we need your help!!

We plan to help start up a reusable pad making centre where local women will be trained in making reusable pads, which they can then sell for a profit. The local women will have ownership over this reusable pad business and it will serve as an alternative source of income for families, particularly during the dry season. It will also help tackle period poverty within the local community -- as one reusable pad can last up to 4 years. 

We will also be raising funds to build three boreholes to grant greater access to water at the local school and at least two villages. The boreholes will provide safe, hygienic water which is essential for hygienic menstrual health management, as well as for creating a safe school environment and for the overall betterment of the village. 

This is a project being led with and for the community. 

One of GAYO's members is from this village and is well connected with the community. Furthermore, GAYO has experience drilling boreholes in the region, meaning that they have already acquired all the necessary contacts and are familiar with the administrative process. Their experience will make the construction of the three boreholes infinitely easier, and will ensure rapid relief in the form of water access for the Kandiga community.

To get this project on its feet as soon as possible, we need your help to purchase the machinery and materials necessary for the start-up and the boreholes. Each and any amount helps!

Please Donate !!