My name is Tariqa Ismail, I am a female individual living in the sunny island of Mombasa on the East Coast of Kenya on the African Continent. Mombasa is a touristic island filled with historical sites, beautiful long beaches and a multitude of cultural experiences especially the famous Swahili hospitality.
The people in Mombasa are very cultured people, and most of the households go about a simple life with average to low income earnings. Many girls and women have now come out of the cultural stigma cocoon, and are attempting to fight for their rights, but there is still a large vacuum that needs to be filled, especially when it comes to matters in relation to Menstrual management hygiene practices and products.
Up to date, in my locality, young adolescent girls and women, use unhygienic pieces of cloth and rags as sanitary towels, and, these sanitary towel rags are flushed down the toilet drain causing sewage blockages and floods. This is very degrading to the environment and puts children at a constant risk of diseases and infections as some are found playing with this dirty water. We also have many cases of girls missing school during their periods, and some cases of girls dropping out of school after their first periods as they are seen to be ready for marriage. Further more, there are instances of women and girls feeling shame and embarrassment to buy sanitary pads from shops and supermarkets especially when being served by a man. It is very rare to find spouses buying sanitary pads for their wives or fathers buying sanitary pads for their daughters, they may provide the money, but handling them is deemed 'unmanly'. This is how, many average and low income family women and girls, endure all this in silence and continuously practice unsafe and unhygienic methods of menstrual hygiene.
It is estimated that 65% of girls and women lack access to sanitary products in Kenya. Most of these young adolescent girls do not receive any sort of knowledge about menstruation from their mothers or any female family members. Therefore there is also need for proper sensitization on Menstrual health and knowledge on the available options of menstrual products via community programs like ours at The Red Dot Initiative.
The Red Dot Initiative is a personal Sanitary pad campaign with a mission of Breaking the silence around menstruation and ending period poverty in Mombasa. We are doing this by not only targeting school girls but by including girls who stay at home or have dropped out of school, refugees, girls and women with special needs (e.g HIV or People living with disabilities), and, orphanages.I am the main financier of the campaign, and, We are further supported by our local Community based organisation called Mwembeni Welfare which assists with volunteers and logistics. My main and biggest supporters are my family and close friends, they have encouraged me from the moment that this initiative was just a thought. And my husband, who by the way doesn't mind shopping for tampons and sanitary pads, is a great added value to this initiative.
We are planning to continuously distribute and sensitize women in my locality up to our furthest reach. Also, we are planning to turn this initiative into a proper charity organisation in the near future, hopefully before the end of 2019. We have many things to achieve, like for instance, my dream is the establishment of a girls club (The Red Dot Army Club) which will be a sanctuary for girls to openly discuss, and give fresh ideas on how to manage period poverty in Mombasa and explore ways of ensuring access of products and knowledge county wide.
There is so much to do, which requires a lot of dedication, hard work and finances. I am requesting all of my friends and family to support my cause and help me bring positive change in my society and my city. Change is not easily accepted, I will not deny that I am facing many challenges, but your love, support and encouragement will help a long way in giving this initiative a lifeline and permanency.
Like and follow our face book page for updates and some information on menstruation :
The Red Dot Initiative: Changing Lives, One Sanitary pad, At a Time.
Thank you....
