Education transforms communities and generations.

Education is a core pillar of the Twaweza Program because it helps us break down the menstrual taboos that hold women and girls back from achieving their full potential. Education enables the communities we work in to initiate conversations and spread the message that menstruation is a normal bodily function.

Femme works by partnering with local schools and community-based organizations to deliver the Twaweza Program to women and girls across East Africa. Femme’s team of Program Officers lead a series of interactive workshops that aim to empower girls to be confident within their bodies, and ensure that menstruation does not cause them to miss school.

We prioritize the creation of a safe space to allow for open conversations about puberty, reproductive anatomy, sexual health, body hygiene, menstruation, and menstrual management. In the past, discussion has often evolved to include more sensitive topics such as rape, masturbation and loss of virginity.

It is the establishment of this safe space that makes the Twaweza Program especially effective, as this could be the first, and sometimes only, opportunity for the girls to engage in open discussions about these subjects.

Our Femme Kits provide the tools for safe and healthy periods.

Access to sanitary pads is a major challenge for many women and girls in communities across East Africa. Women often resort to using homemade methods of menstrual management, which can be ineffective, uncomfortable, and unhygienic.

Femme Kits are distributed to all beneficiaries of the Twaweza Program and are designed to contain everything a woman needs to manage their menstrual cycle.

The central component of the Femme Kits is a reusable menstrual management product – either a menstrual cup or washable pads. They remove the financial burden of menstruation and provide safe, environmentally-friendly alternatives to disposable pads or other more unhygienic methods of menstrual management. Program beneficiaries choose which product they prefer.

The Kits also include: a bar of soap in a protective container, a small towel, a steel bowl in which to boil and sterilize the cup, and a Twaweza workbook to use during the workshop and to take home as a resource.