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Femme International is committed to using education, conversation & distribution to break down the global menstrual taboo. Menstruation affects 51% of the world's population, with every woman experiencing menses during her lifetime. For menstruators in low-income communities, getting your period presents a set of specific challenges - poor access to menstrual products, oppressive taboos, lack of adequate hygiene facilities, and lack of reproductive health education. 83% of girls in Burkina Faso, and 77% in Nigeria (UNICEF) have no place to clean themselves at school, and will therefore leave early. The World Bank has estimated that girls will miss 10-20% of her education because of her body's natural cycle. Femme believes that providing adolescent girls not only with reusable menstrual products, but also comprehensive education, empowers them to feel in control of their bodies, and breaks down the menstrual taboo. When women lack access to sanitary pads, either by financial constraints or lack of availability, they will use alternative methods. In India, 88% of menstruating women use homemade methods. In Tanzania, the most common method is to use rags, or cloth, folded into the underwear - something women have been doing for centuries. However, when the cloth is not washed properly, used when damp, or shared among sisters, it becomes unsafe. Other homemade methods common in Tanzania include foam mattress stuffing, newspaper, leaves, even mud. These methods are not safe or hygienic, and they are uncomfortable, preventing girls from being able to concentrate or participate in school. They also don't help girls feel comfortable during a week when they are already feeling ashamed of their bodies. Unsafe menstrual management is a leading cause of reproductive tract infections (UTIs, yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis), which when untreated can cause more serious health concerns. The decision to use and promote reusable products is because sanitary pads are unaffordable for many women. The average cost of a package of 8 pads in Tanzania is approximately $1/day, which is often the same as the daily wage for an unskilled labourer. For a 14-year old girl, she will rarely feel comfortable asking the male breadwinner for this money, and they will rarely be able to provide her with it. A study in Kenya indicated that one in ten girls aged 15 had engaged in transactional sex to purchase pads. In rural Tanzania, or even urban centers, there is no method of garbage disposal beyond burning. Many women report burying their products, but must do so far away from their homes because of the perceived destructive powers of menstrual blood. The environmental impact of disposable menstrual products is staggering, and unsustainable, both financially and environmentally. The Twaweza Project is simple - and it works. Preliminary M&E reports demonstrate significant impact, including improved academic results and attendance, improved self-confidence, reduction of financial stress, and improved health. Adolescent beneficiaries are two times less likely to report symptoms of bacterial vaginosis.

Tana River Life Foundation (TRLF) is a charitable organization based in Idsowe Village in the Tana Delta in Kenya. It was founded as a private trust in 2005 by Gabriel Teo Kian Chong, a Malaysian citizen resident in Kenya. TRLF was registered as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with the Kenya NGOs Coordination Board in 2007. Tana River Life Foundation's mission is to assist individuals and thereby entire rural communities, especially the marginalized and economically disadvantaged, become self-reliant in dignity. Tana River Life Foundation's vision is to build a more just and honest society, leading to more complete humanity for all. Through education support schemes, sustainable agricultural projects, community-based entrepreneurship schemes, and youth integral formation programmes, TRLF seeks to nurture the inherent talents and potentials of people such that they have the freedom and ability to build lives of dignity for themselves, their dependents, and their larger communities. By connecting people from economically developed and developing societies, TRLF also seeks to give more meaning and depth to each life that it encounters.

Our mission is to inspire and transform men, women and children in impoverished areas throughout East Africa through empowerment and education initiatives.

The Forgiveness Project works to build understanding and give people the opportunity to move forward from trauma and conflict, enabling both personal and societal transformation.

(LLK) Leben und Lernen in Kenya e.V. (also registered in Kenya as Live and Learn in Kenya Int'l as our daughter organization) provides funds to send needy children to school with everything necessary.

Our Mission is to equip and celebrate new generation of African thinkers, leaders and innovators.

Our Mission Providing orphans, neglected and abused children a home and basic needs to be able to lead an as normal life as possible Our Vision Creating an environment where children learn to be confident and well balanced youngsters ready to life an independent life when they leave the Home Core Values Compassion Integrity Respect Knowledge Diversity Commitment

RIJ is an independent non-profit organization that funds projects for people displaced by conflict around the world. RIJ supports projects that provide opportunities for people to lead an independent normal life while staying near to home and their loved ones; projects that enable people to give back to the community and make valuable contributions to the local economy as well as rebuilding their own future.

NIGEE envisions a society and a future of self-determining and self-reliant girls and women. To achieve this, we have a mission to leverage community and other resources to equip girls with knowledge and skills for productive and fulfilled adult life. The Initiative identifies and taps into community resources to support girls' education and training as a foundation for self-reliance and self-determination in and beyond basic needs. Since initiation, our goal has been to generate local resources and return back to school girls who dropped out mainly due to early pregnancy and child marriage. NIGEE's core values and mandate are to protect, promote and ensure that all rights of women and girls are respected. We focus specifically on the rights to education and sexual and reproductive health. The right to education is a bridge to other rights, and education gives young women choices and the power to decide over their own lives and bodies. Indeed, the cascading benefits of female education to girls, their families and community underscores the imperative of supporting girls' education and secondary education is particularly critical for breaking the cycle of poverty and addressing a host of other indicators of poor health. NIGEE employs two advocacy approaches: Human Rights Based approach (conventional) and Societal Responsibility approach (crafted by NIGEE's Patron). We believe that making our community a safe place for girls and women is everyone's responsibility. To support our activities, we focus on mobilization of local resources through social entrepreneurship. This is our pillar to sustainability and ownership; external resources are supplemental. Through championing local resource mobilization initiatives, we aim at facilitating sustainable community-owned educational model to enhance school re-enrolment, retention, attendance and learning outcomes by girls who resume school after dropping out. For the girls who are in our program and those who also dropped out of school due to teen pregnancy in their communities, we plan to initiate retreats during school holidays were we provide education, information sharing and contraceptives so that they do not continue to have more children.

BridgIT's Program objective is to provide improved drinking water to rural areas in developing countries. This is achieved by delivering suitable, accessible and sustainable water solutions closer within each rural community relieving the economic and health burdens of searching long distances for long periods of time to collect water from open contaminated and often dangerous sources.

Graduate Women International (GWI), founded in 1919 as the International Federation of University (IFUW), is a worldwide, non-governmental organisation of women graduates. GWI advocates for women's rights, equality and empowerment through access to quality secondary and tertiary education and training up to the highest levels. GWI's mission is to: Promote lifelong education for women and girls; Promote international cooperation, friendship, peace and respect for human rights for all, irrespective of their age, race, nationality, religion, political opinion, gender and sexual orientation or other status; Advocate for the advancement of the status of women and girls; and Encourage and enable women and girls to apply their knowledge and skills in leadership and decision-making in all forms of public and private life.

Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) was created in 2001 in response to the HIV crisis in western Kenya. It is built on a partnership between Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and the Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret, Kenya, and a consortium of North American academic health centers, led by Indiana University. The partners joined forces to create one of Africa's largest, most comprehensive and effective HIV/AIDS management and control systems. AMPATH is a formal partner with the United States government through a $75 million grant from USAID and has continually expanded its successful HIV approach to into a more comprehensive primary health care system. With a tri-partite mission of care, education, and research, AMPATH provides healthcare services to a population of 3.5 million people in western Kenya and focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of the entire population-leaving no one behind.