ONCE A VULNERABLE GIRL IN KENYA REACHES PUBERTY, SHE GENERALLY MISSES ABOUT 20 PERCENT OF SCHOOL DAYS DUE TO HER PERIOD

 

When even food is scarce, understandably money cannot be spent on sanitary supplies.  Many girls use rags, but girls sometimes must resort to using leaves, newspapers, or pieces of mattresses.  Sadly, many girls also give men sex in return for pocket money to buy sanitary pads, often resulting in venereal disease and pregnancy. These ineffective and unsafe methods keep the girls at home, away from learning.  And the cycle of the poor woman not being able to overcome her circumstances perpetuates.

Over the years, many humanitarian organizations have provided women in developing countries, including Kenya with sanitary pads.  While this is helpful, it is not sustainable. The supplies must continue to be replenished, and that costs a lot of money.

THE DISCOVERY OF A SOLUTION

Changing Lenses, Changing Lives discovered a new trend—the menstrual cup--in 2015, which can literally Change the Lives of girls in Kenya and around the world. While the menstrual cup has been around since the 1930s, it only recently began gaining momentum in both developed and underdeveloped nations.  

Made from medical-grade silicone, it is reusable, and lasts for up to TEN years! One cup costs around $15, which is about the price of a three-month supply of sanitary napkins in Kenya.

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GLORIE GITONGA

SOCIAL WORKER AND RUBY CUP LIAISON

RACHAEL MWIKALI

RUBY CUP TRAINER

VANESSA KIVUGALE

RUBY CUP COORDINATOR & TRAINER

A NEW WORLD OF POSSIBILITY

Through a powerful social mission program, a company named Ruby Cup provides the cups and the training for our girls. In September of 2015, we introduced the Ruby Cup to girls in the Kaaga Synod of Kenya for the first time.  This was truly a Change of Lenses for our girls, and it has decidedly Changed Lives! We began small, with just a few hundred cups in one school, but we have grown tremendously! We now donate cups and provide training to seven schools, our own sponsored girls and their families, and to mothers in the Meru community. We recently expanded to a community in the Rift Valley, and hope to expand in 2021 to several more schools, as head teachers are beginning to approach us asking to be included in our Ruby Cup program.

Some girls are doubtful initially, but after their half day of training is complete many are jumping up and down, hugging and thanking the trainers. They know their lives have just improved drastically. A head teacher at one impoverished day school has reported that not only are attendance and grades up among his female students, but also enrollment has increased, as parents and girls seek out the school where they will receive a menstrual cup. And one girl, Doris exclaimed that now “it is possible to work hard and be in class ALWAYS!“

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