Period Poverty and Women's Health Projects in Kyangala,Kenya

On Monday 26th May I will be running the Hatfield Broad Oak 10k to raise money for Women's Health Projects in Kyangala, a rural area in Kenya. Aside from my women's health and general GP work in Hatfield Heath and Hatfield Broad Oak, this year I started volunteering with the Kyangala Trust, a charity supporting people in this rural area of Kenya through sustainable aid and development projects.

My role with the charity is to help improve women's health in Kyangala and the surrounding community. The first project I am working on is to alleviate period poverty. This is a big issue for girls and women who often don't have access to the products they need during their period, and are therefore forced to miss school or work. Education is one of the key routes out of poverty, so if teenage girls are missing a week of school every month they are massively disadvantaged and much more likely to drop out of school altogether, leading to less chance of breaking out of poverty in the future. Other issues around period poverty are problems with safe access to good toilets, and also lack of education around women's health issues both for girls themselves and for boys, leading to stigma in society.

We plan to develop a scheme whereby sewing machines and materials are provided to allow girls to sew their own reusable sanitary pads. We will also fund an 'emergency' supply of period products to be distributed as needed. Longer term plans include improving school toilets and running some health education courses.

Please sponsor me to help raise money for this project and to help girls and women in Kyangala break out of period poverty. Thank you!