Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

In a strange sense, while that process helped women gain a bit of control over their bodies and their lives, which is a good thing; and while it probably also helped some girls stay in school, as some girls mentioned feeling ashamed of doing so during their period, I initially felt like a reusable solution would have been more liberating, while also respecting the environment.

But the initial feeling had to do with my westerner point of view, where resources like clean water (to wash the reusable product) are abundant, and where the products can be bought online in a few taps on a glass screen in my pocket. The context for these women is very different: learning how to build a pad-pressing machine and build a business out of it was definitely more empowering than deferring that power to an external entity for the manufacturing of reusable products.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6939026/ (available on Netflix)

My mother has been involved in operating and supporting a network of Kenyan orphanages for decades. She's on the board of directors for the US 501c3 that funds them. The woman who founded this organization (a US citizen) adopted several of the orphans and spent most of her time for 20 years in the country operating the homes until her health decline and dimensia prevented her direct involvement. The board became aware that a director of one of the homes (keynan born man in his mid twenties and the first adoptee of the orgs founder) had been submitting false receipts and not paying land tax, had kicked out orphans and was renting the property, etc. The 93 year old, recently widowed founder did not believe the allegation and a court case (in Kenya) between her the board ensued. Predicting resolution and subsequent board control of the home, my mother quit her job in the US and moved to Kenya (planned for a year) to act as interim director, reestablished the orphanage and transition to a new local director. They instead realized that a case between two westerners, with resources to pay attorneys and court fees, was likely to be dragged out for a long time. She instead volunteered at the nursery at Kenya Children's Home for a short time before going on to help setup and operate a new clinic, built by the Freedom from Fistula[0] foundation, in Madagascar.

In our correspondence, she expressed the vital need for both incontinence and feminine hygiene supplies and consequences of a girls life without them. She explained a tragic situation: that pubecent girls would miss unpredictable amounts of school (often falling behind to the point of withdrawal/failure) without them, and that there was a very real fear of being shunned for failing to control their natural bodily functions. Projects like the one in this article, where minimal targeted investments can result in wide spread life changing outcomes are awesome and inspiring!

1. The number of donated cups is very low. Several thousand people are living better, but millions more are still struggling. Is this an effort that can scale up to provide a more universally accessible benefit? Or are there unstated assumptions, like that publicizing the magnitude of the issue will trigger outrage and bring about reform, or genuine ongoing efforts to follow through with that reform?

2. Personal hygiene products costing such a high proportion of average earnings points to a serious failure of society, government, markets, or perhaps all of the above. The government can't seem to provide, the markets can't seem to adapt, and society doesn't seem to care enough to force the issue. This isn't an exotic reason: we're talking basics for half the population here. There are people in poverty in advanced economies who have trouble with access to menstrual hygiene products, but the scale of the problem highlighted in the article is astounding. It points to an ever-present serious divide between those who greatly benefit from a connected world, and those who are having to reconcile absurd economic realities of the transition.

3. With a little help, one could bootstrap change. There is will among those most affected to ensure the continuity of ventures that make this issue better, but an injection of capital seems necessary to bring such a venture to fruition. The donation of finished products helps people immediately, but it's worth considering whether donating to bootstap local production of similar (or even inferior) products would work better such that the effort can eventually evolve to sustain itself without outside help. Sometimes, when this kind of bootstrapping is attempted, the effort falters quickly once the outside help leaves, because there's a lack of well-developed local institutions and capital necessary to sustain it. But this seems different, the institutions exist. It's the capital that's lacking.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/03...

Menstruation, Sanitary Products, and School Attendance: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation (AEJ: Applied 2011)

https://4d30f248-a-383b438b-s-sites.googlegroups.com/a/illin...