Page 25 - People Daily Newspaper

Monday, September 20, 2021 / PEOPLE DAILY

Take Off Guru

How trio is

changing lives

of girls, women

With the Heels4Pads foundation and SisterSpeaks Global,
Angela Waweru, Monicah Muhoya and Angela Wambui
SisterSpeaks Global cofounders Angela Waweru, Monicah Muhoya and Angela Wambui. COURTESY
are out to fight period poverty
is pads. During our meeting, she proposed because it will be in conjunction with schools’
that we identify about five wearable high heels guidance and counselling heads to ensure
by Kwach Wakhisi menstrual health approach. that we no longer wore to give out in exchange girls, boys, teachers, and parents are part of
@PeopleDailyKE “At Heels4Pads, we design campaigns for pads. We immediately agreed that this was the period conversation. This is with the intent
and interventions to raise awareness on a winning idea and worked through a digital of reducing girls’ absenteeism from school
period poverty and its consequences on campaign and from that coined the name during menstruation and eliminating period
hen Angela Waweru, Moni- IN
cah Muhoya and Angela girls and women’s lives. We support them Heels4Pads because it embodied what we BRIEF shaming,” she adds.
Wambui decided to team with products, menstrual hygiene and were aiming to do,” Waweru explains. By running the initiative, Waweru says they
up, their goal was to leave health education as well as life skills to Waweru and Wambui have both lived and Heels- have gained a better understanding of various
a lasting impact on society. reach their full potential,” adds Waweru. grown in the UK and US respectively, hence by 4Pads is a challenges faced nationally, learnt how tradi-
They defied all doubts and So how did the trio start this venture? founding SSG, they wanted to bring together foundation tions and religion play a huge role on how the
Wtook a leap of faith to make “We knew each other on a personal level the international exposure and experience under Sis- topic around period is viewed.
a difference. and had expressed our desire to work on on women issues combined with their edu- terSpeaks “Covid-19 threw a curveball at our founda-
The trio runs SisterSpeaks Global (SSG), projects to connect and empower women cational background in media, education, ICT Global that tion projects as we had to postpone our plans
a female-centred events organisation and girls in Kenya,” says Waweru. and business. seeks to of working closely with schools. Nonethe-
address
One day, when all the three of them met,
where they curate events that empower they organised an event on April 7, 2019 In addition, the team has gone through menstrual less, it has brought to light how menstrual
women to reach their full potential, in- some fellowship programmes. Waweru is a health in health can’t be ignored. With growing cases
crease their networking capacities, expand and then SisterSpeaks Global was born. A Young African Leaders Initiative alumna and the coun- of teenage pregnancy and alleged reports of
dialogues while offering them training month later, Monicah, who had seen first- Monicah is certified by the United Nations In- try. transactional sex for pads, it highlights the
and skills to prepare them for the future of hand the issues street girls and women stitute for Training and Research programme importance of having favourable policies and
work and to enhance their economic op- face during their periods, coined and on Social Entrepreneurship, Leadership and It was ensuring girls understand the intersection
portunities. launched Heels4Pads as the organisation’s Innovation for Women in the Horn of Africa. started between menstrual and sexual health rights,”
“We use digital media to create content corporate social responsibility initiative. It was during one of her visits to Mathare after one she offers.
“The idea started when Monicah was
that provides educational and inspirational clearing her shoe rack and had heels she slums that Monicah identified the menstrual of the co- They have digitised their heels4pads ex-
resources, including spotlighting sisters management challenges street girls and founders change market by running an Instagram shop
from across the globe who embody the had wanted to give out to her younger women experience. This inspired the idea saw first- @h4pXchange where ladies can purchase
spirit of excellence, leadership and create cousins, but not all wore her shoe size. to reach out to her social media network to hand how heels for Sh600, which ensures a girl will be
equal opportunities for all,” says Waweru. Having just started SisterSpeaks Global, raise pads. Over 1,000 packets of pads were homeless covered with a year’s supply of sanitary pads.
They also run the Heels4Pads Founda- Monicah had also identified May 28 as donated. women “Our work is needed now more than ever.
tion, the organisation’s charity arm, found- Menstrual Hygiene Day. We had thought The success of the online fundraiser pre- and girls We have remained consistently focused on not
ed to reach and impact girls and women of doing something to support women and sented an opportunity to use social media to faced chal- trying to avoid the challenges but using them
lenges
from low-income communities through a girls who couldn’t attend our events and raise more awareness on period poverty. to strengthen our project. We have found our-
the one thing we all could connect through The founders are also part of the Menstrual with peri- selves expanding our services to include non-
Health Management Alliance and other water, ods. perishable food items donated in our dignity
sanitation and hygiene forums advocating for They kits that have helped former domestic workers
policy change and the need to take up space plan to who lost their jobs and also carry out commu-
using digital media to develop campaigns that reach over nity sensitisation on Covid-19,” adds Wambui.
deconstruct period myths to safeguard lives of 50,000 Among the projects include travelling to
girls who are sometimes taken advantage of school Turkana together with Ajuma Foundation,
and lured into actions such as sex for pads. girls Marsabit and Samburu counties with Amref to
Since 2019, the foundation has reached within the advocate for MHM and distribute pads. One of
over 15,000 beneficiaries with menstrual next five their proudest moments is being presented as
products, and facilitated menstrual health years the Beauty with a Purpose project at the Miss
education and mentorship across 10 counties World International contest in London by Miss
in Kenya. World Kenya 2019-2021.
“Covid-19 has affected and exacerbated In two years, they have supported over
poverty. We are in the process of rolling out a 15,000 girls and women nationally. Their plan
sustainable project as schools have reopened is to kick-start their sustainable project in
to ensure girls do not miss out on education schools where they aim to support a minimum
Member of the Heels4Pads Foundaton distributes and parents are relieved of the burden of buy- of 50,000 school girls across the 47 counties
ing sanitary towels,” Wambui says. within their first five years of operation to en-
pads in Samburu at a recent drive. PD/COURTESY
“The programme will ensure inclusion sure girls have education through innovation.
RANDOM SENSE 8*5) &7&-:/ .",&/"
Dirty air kills more than HIV/Aids
Air pollution is a leading cause health but also exacerbates the
of death cutting short lives of climate crisis. Through events QUICK FIGURES
billions of people and causing like wildfires, the climate crisis is
more deaths compared to HIV/ also contributing to air pollution 4.2m 6 90% 1.5% 5
Aids, smoking or car crashes a creating a vicious cycle. Scientists
new report shows. Fumes from involved in the report term air
coal burning are the biggest pollution as the greatest external number of number of of global percentage of number of years clean
cause of dirty air with India being threat to human health on the deaths caused years air population endure global electricity air policies add onto
worst affected. Air pollution planet. Yet countries can make a by air pollution pollution cut toxic outdoor air in 2020 made by people`s lives in the
caused by fossil fuel burning does difference by adopting clean air annually people’s lives pollution coal power most polluted regions
not only negatively impact on policies.