Days For Girls Uganda Update, Part 1

Hello! Hope you are having a wonderful day!

We at Days for Girls recently received a fabulous report from Libby, our Days for Girls Uganda Country Director. Since the end of summer, Days for Girls Uganda has been on the move! They've traveled to eight districts across Uganda to carry out trainings, supported our partners to spread the Days for Girls knowledge, and made amazing friends and allies at conferences and networking events!

As we share the report, most of all we all want to share how YOU are making an impact by your service, volunteering, and tireless efforts to make kits. Thank you!

We are dividing the Uganda update into a 4-part series so we don't overwhelm you with all the amazing stories and updates at once! This week we're sharing about September events. (Know that most of the below came straight from Libby, with our blogging team doing a bit of editing and arranging.)

Greetings From Uganda Days For Girls

Sending greetings! We have a question for you:

What if your support changed the world?

It may sound cliché' but, it does! We wanted to share how big of a difference you are making. Your support directly strengthens the in-country efforts of Days for Girls Uganda, which in turn strengthens communities. Those communities are replicating our efforts around the world as they start their own DfG Enterprise and create a micro franchise opportunity for the ultra poor.

A DfG enterprise provides training and resources for participants to be paid for making and marketing DfG kits. They do this while serving as local leaders in the education of how to use and care for kits and Women's Health education-- think "Avon Lady meets Women's Resources."

The training includes not only how to make a kit but how to teach about basic Women's Health, managing the business, soap making, marketing and community hygiene solutions.

It all adds up to local strength. That's how YOU keep making more opportunity, health and education happen. It's working.

September Uganda Update

We're excited to share our September report from Uganda. This will help you understand what kinds of things your support accomplishes, alongside the vital work of Days for Girls Chapters and teams.

SNV 25-Year Anniversary Event Exhibition

In September, our team was invited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our partner organization, SNV. This Dutch development organization has been instrumental in helping us reach the thousands of girls and women they serve across Uganda. We've taught them menstrual hygiene, kit-making skills and knowledge as well as empowered men to support these efforts.

At this fun-filled event, we showcased our kits and talked to many partners about the needs for lasting solutions and the benefits of washable products. (see featured image)

Meeting of MHM Partners

The following week, we attended a meeting with many of the key menstrual hygiene companies, organizations and advocates here in Uganda. We discussed the challenges facing small organizations on the ground, such as:

Lack of awareness about the options available to girls
Difficulties producing products that are affordable but still income generating.

We left the meeting with many ideas and feeling confident that Days for Girls' is on the right track. Our unique combination of education-based programs, dissemination of skills, and development of a strong supply chain is just the model we need to meet our goals and reach as many people as possible – or, as we like to say, every girl, everywhere, period.

Kit Business Training in Kitgum

After all of these big-picture meetings and networking events, it was great to get back into the field to work with the community firsthand again. The team traveled to Kitgum, way up in Northern Uganda, to work with a team of women and men from organizations across the district.

This group came together to participate in our Kit Business program. The program included modules on:

reproductive health
kit making
soap making (liquid and bar soap)
business skills.

Participants came up with a clear plan to make these products and sell them in their local communities.

Since the completion of the training, this group has already reordered additional materials through us as their supply chain. More evidence that our model is really working!

Be sure to check out "Uganda Upate Part 2, October"

Many thanks!

Days for Girls