unity for charity

1. Challenge with sanitary towels

Research shows that 65% of Kenyan women and girls are unable to afford basic sanitary pads. As a consequence, girls often rely on the men in their lives for period products and some girls engage in transactional sex in order to secure sanitary products, perpetuating a patriarchal cycle of reliance and exploitation.

In addition to the period stigma, women and girls in Nairobi informal settlements also grapple with period poverty, occasioned by limited access to period essentials including underwear, sanitary products, water, and facilities such as toilets and bathrooms. There is direct correlation to be drawn between period poverty and the rise in cases of teenage pregnancy in the informal settlements during the pandemic. Within the Nairobi metropolitan, we had at least 400 reported cases of teenage pregnancy during the lockdown period. When girls have to pay to access sanitation facilities and water to clean themselves, it puts them in a very vulnerable position during their menses.

When people earn less than two dollars a day, is a family going to buy food, pay rent and other bills, cater for education or a girl’s sanitary pads? Due to this cause, girls use cotton wool, mattresses, old clothes, or even share used pads which is unhygienic.  

For girls and women to afford this basic commodity, they are taken advantage of by men who are earning and have money, hence demanding for sex in return provide funds to purchase the towels. This has therefore increased cases of early pregnancies, early marriages, school drop outs and also increased transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. As a result, the teenage girls who have dreams and bright future end up becoming hopeless, used up and messed up. Their future is put at halt due to this Challenge. 

2. Challenges facing orphanages

Kenya is estimated to have 2.4 million orphans. Approximately 40,000-42,000 orphans and vulnerable children are living in children’s homes also known as orphanages. In this homes, these children are provided for food by well-wishers. However, it is sad to note that 80% of the children’s homes within Nairobi are on rented or leased plots. This means the founders of the children’s homes have to part with as much as 150$ per month to cater for rent.

Some homes also face challenges of eviction when the tenant plans to sell his property. An example of such a case is like the case of Acts of Hope Children’s home, Kabiria that we as an organisation have visited thrice within the years we have operated. The case was aired on KBC TV, on 27th March 2022.

The home has had a challenge of space, food, and the children lack proper educational materials. To our surprise, the beddings were wanting, no beds, but worn out mattresses dropped on the non-cemented floor.

That not enough, some of these homes are not able to meet the needs of the children. Some of the children do not get enough meals and lack proper clothing as some homes becomes congested. 

Children often share beds and experience poor hygiene, poor education, lack of healthcare and lack of nutrition. 

Some of the students only get studies up to primary level since that is the furthest some homes can support. it becomes hard for them to pay high school fees in cases where they have many kids. This therefore denies the kids an opportunity to proceed with their education. It is also difficult to get sponsors mostly where the children's home has no donors.

Unity for charity organisation has been providing sanitary pads in slums hence reducing the cases mentioned above. Through well wishers, we purchase pads and inner wears for the teenagers and young women in the slums.

We have also come up with means of getting reusable sanitary towels that will serve them for a longer period of time.

we provide basic needs such as food and clothing to the childrens' homes. 

We have been looking for means of providing  books and also assisting some homes in getting permanent homes.

To make the homes self reliant, our team is embarking on projects and lessons for the kids to make envelopes, liquid soap, weaving etc. This will help them with an art that can be turned into an income generating activity for self sustainability.

The target population is teenage girls and young women living in informal settlements within Nairobi metropolitan, in high schools and primary schools. However, with time and proper funding we wish to spread out to other areas within our country. These people have no access or little access to proper and hygienic sanitation. Their dignity during menses is lowered due to the challenge, if provided with sanitary towels, their dignity shall be maintained.

Girls have been dropping out of school since they are preyed on by men. Providing them with sanitary towels will reduce such cases and will ensure a bright future for them.

Children in orphanages have had a challenge of food, clothing and education. If we have enough funds, we shall ensure they get enough quality food, proper clothing and education materials. This will boost their self esteem that might have gone down due to the nature of their place of growth.

As an organisation, we have been relying on well wishers, who supports with a maximum 5$ per person in three moths. Through this we have been able to reach the following for temporary solutions....

1. Acts of hope Childrens home (thrice) - food, clothing and books

2. Makimei Childrens home (once) - food, clothing

3. Bethlehem childrens home (once) - food and clothing

4. New Mwangaza Secondary school (kariobangi slum) -books,  sanitary towels and inner wears for both boys and girls

5. Kariobangi Outreach Childresn home - food, clothing and sanitary towels.

6. St Charles Lwanga,Ruai (twice) _ sanitary pad drive , stationery

Besides donations, we offer free counselling sessions on all aspects of life. ie. health and hygiene, academic guidance, social and religious lives. During this interactions, we manage to get to know the challenges affecting them.

Due to the hard economic times, we have not been able to meet our target budgets. This is due to insufficient finances.

Again due to the many cases of lack of sanitary towels we are able to provide sanitary pads for use within 3 months only, since we have less money to budget for annual needs.

 At the same time, we wish to help childrens' homes purchase their own land to settle, but due to the financial constraints we cannot assist much.

Books and clothing are never enough due to the high number of needy cases.

Therefore, if we receive funding, It will expand our budget and therefore touch more lives and for a reasonable period of time. We shall also come up with ways of ensuring sustainability of the target groups.

with more funding, we shall afford to offer reusable sanitary towels. Therefore, this will inspire even other organisations offering the same services to adopt the same hence solving the challenge by almost 70%.

The children in children home will also have boosted esteem hence making them feel loved. They will also get quality academic materials hence improving their knowledge academically.

1. Ensure all women have access to proper sanitation, and can afford sanitary towels hence dignity upholding. 

2. Ensure no teenage girl misses school due to menses.

3. Ensure children in atleast 70% of the kenyan childrens homes are provided with basic needs. Not only through donations but through equipping them with craft short courses that will help them generate own income.

1. Are the children getting enough quality food? This is a question that we are going to use to determine the success of our project. We shall be checking on whether the children gets affordable quality food, check if they are feeding on a balanced diet. 

2. Are the children and the teenage girls accessing health care? We have been checking whether maintaining the hygiene of the children in orphanages is maintained. Also check  on hygiene of the women after providing the sanitary towels. This is in line with health care.

3. Are the girls and the children getting quality education? We need to evaluate if the girls after getting sanitary towels manage to attend 100% classes. Also through empowering childrens home, we need to assess on bow the children progress in their academic perfomances.

Providing materials for envelope making, weaving materials and soap detergents, will meet their short term needs. In future, they will train others and hence continuity is assured.

Through guidance and counselling, the short term effect is that the existing children will have a self of belonging, a high self esteem therefore they will do well academically and this will make them admired by the rest who will come im after them as they will realise that they can make it irrespective of where they are brought up. 

Assisting young ladies with sanitary towels, will transform the current generation and protect them from exploitation and in future they will be supporting such initiatives inorder to help those younger than them in the same situations.

we are looking forward to adopting reusable sanitary towels hence conservation of the environment. 

We wish to also come up with an app that will help supply sanitary towels at cheaper prices in future.

Unity for Charity organisation membership comprises of both gender, the key commitee, made of a team of 8 has three gentlemen and 5 ladies ages between 23-40.  The youth are from differeny cultures and tribes within the boundaries of Kenya. 

In addition, we have no specific tribe that we donate to, however we do it within the community that  has a diverse culture and norms. We are also striving to visit all parts of the country with this initiative