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IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF YOUNG GIRLS AND WOMEN IN TCHAOUROU

  • 2022 Winner

From One to Another

Context

The topic of menstruation remains taboo in most families and in Beninese society. Young girls lack information and support. The main obstacles they face are educational, but also cultural and religious. For economic reasons, girls and women often resort to makeshift sanitary products, which endanger their gynecological health.

Every healthy woman will menstruate on average between 2,555 and 3,000 days in her lifetime. However, not all women have equal access to menstrual hygiene management. Social and economic hardship deprives some of adequate menstrual hygiene. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) defines period poverty as "the difficulties many women and girls face in affording menstrual hygiene products due to low incomes.".

Currently, there is no satisfactory solution for properly managing menstrual periods. The association Des Unes Aux Autres aims to achieve the following objectives through this project: to make washable, suitable, and sustainable menstrual products accessible to all; to inform and educate in order to combat myths and taboos; and to encourage girls and boys to speak openly about their experiences.

Local know-how and production tools will make it possible to support, train and raise awareness among young seamstresses in vulnerable situations.

  • Country: Benin
  • Location: Tchaourou
  • Sector of intervention:
    Human rights, governance, citizenship
  • Guild grant: €8,800
  • Project cost: €67,360
  • Project Leader: From One to Another
  • In partnership with: NGO Actions for the Development and Fulfillment of the Family
Funder(s):
• La Guilde

Project objectives

  • To improve the living conditions of young girls and women in Tchaourou.
  • Promote the local production and distribution of washable menstrual pads.
  • Informing and educating to combat fantasies and taboos.
  • Giving girls, but also boys, a voice.

Activities

  • Implementation of activities for the manufacture and distribution of sanitary napkins through the rehabilitation of a premises.
  • Organization and supervision of the production of washable sanitary napkin kits.
  • Facilitating awareness sessions on the issue of menstruation.
  • Training for seamstresses and sales of kits.

Direct beneficiaries

  • Approximately 7000: 6000 school children from primary to secondary school, 300 adults (teachers and women's groups), 20 young seamstresses trained and employed, 50 local tailors initiated in the making of towels, 2 Beninese trainees.

Social networks

Facebook Association Des Unes Aux Autres

Through its Microprojects division, the NGO La Guilde, in partnership with the French Development Agency, supports the implementation of microprojects for sustainable development internationally.