Is there a special girl or woman who’s changed your life? Thanks to GlobalGiving, you can honor her by changing a girl’s life and donating to Huru’s GlobalGiving Open Challenge project in her name. We love GlobalGiving, and if we meet their summer challenge (raising $4000 from 50+ independent donors, all before August 31), we’ll earn a permanent Huru page on their website, helping us spread the word about our plan to keep thousands of gifted girls in school. We have 15 days left!
Donate $25—enough to give one at-risk girl a Huru Kit with enough supplies to keep her in school for over one year—as a back-to-school present for your favorite schoolgirl. Donate $50—enough to equip Huru’s distribution staff with a year’s worth of safety supplies—in the name of your mentor, a woman who inspires you to follow your dreams. Donate $75—enough to support peer educators at Huru distribution events—as a birthday gift for your best friend (especially if she has an August birthday!) Donate $100—the cost of materials to make 160 sanitary pads—in the name of your mother, sister, or favorite aunt. Donate $250—enough to cover the cost of hosting a distribution event, which lets us bring Huru Kits and HIV/AIDS prevention information to dozens of at-risk girls—in the memory of a loved one who has passed away, who was very important to you.
How do you change 200 lives in just 28 days? One of our favorite nonprofits, GlobalGiving, wants to find out. GlobalGiving connects donors to important grassroots charity projects throughout the developing world, helping raise money and awareness.
From August 2 through 31, Huru will take on a GlobalGiving challenge: keep at least 200 girls in school for one year. If we raise more than $4000 before August 31, we’ll earn a permanent place on GlobalGiving’s website—a great way to get Huru Kits to hundreds (or thousands!) more girls next month. Every $25 lets us bring a Huru Kit to one girl. The kits (which include 8 reusable sanitary pads, 3 pairs of underwear, detergent soap, a bag for storage and life-saving information on HIV/AIDS prevention in a drawstring backpack) last one year. In Kenya, girls are often forced to miss school every month during their periods, putting them so far behind that many drop out altogether. Huru’s cost-effective, sustainable solution has kept thousands of girls in school already, and we’re just getting started. Our goal is to raise $5000 this month—20% more than GlobalGiving’s challenge minimum.
Where do you come in? The GlobalGiving Challenge requires that we raise money from at least 50 unique donors (that’s you!)—and the project with the greatest number of different donors earns a $2000 bonus. The three GlobalGiving projects that raise the most money this August get bonuses of $1000, $2000, or $3000. The five projects that have been shared the most on Facebook each get an extra $300. That’s enough for us to keep an additional 12 girls in school!
The challenge starts now! To donate through GlobalGiving and help us meet our 28-day, $5000+, 50+ donor, 200+ Huru Kit goal, click here. Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, and an email to friends and family. The minimum donation is just $10.
It’s a beautiful summer, and Huru’s been busy! We’ve had sixteen Huru Kit distribution events, bringing safe, reusable sanitary supplies and HIV prevention information to at-risk girls in six of the eight provinces in Kenya. In June and July, we gave kits to over 3000 girls!
At Gutundu South in Kiambu County, the girls were timid at first about telling us what they used instead of sanitary pads for their monthly periods—it turns out that most use discarded clothing–and all 105 girls were surprised and thrilled by their new Huru Kits. Primary school student Philis told us she will remain forever grateful to Huru for making a difference in her life, and she can now work hard to better her life. She won’t have to miss school anymore.
In Kamulu, where we gave out 114 Huru Kits, the girls weren’t so surprised—they had already heard about us from their friends. Several told us that other local students had praised Huru, and there were shouts of joy when our distribution team showed up. We had a great discussion about HIV/AIDS prevention, and we hope the girls will keep spreading the word.
In Karuri Banana, we gave out 704 kits. One girl at the distribution event was trying to hide her period-stained dress. She was too shy for an interview, but she was delighted to use her Huru Kit right away.
Summer isn’t over yet! With your help, we want to get Huru Kits to thousands more girls.
Anne Okelo, who grew up in the small village of Angiro, Kenya, is one of Huru’s heroes. From a young age, Anne had a keen sense of justice. Most girls in Angiro marry at age fourteen, usually to a man with many wives, and many contract HIV/AIDS. Anne refused to marry so young, and decided instead to make her education her number one priority. She earned her master’s degree in May 2010, and since then, she’s been fighting to change conditions for other girls in her village. She raised $35,000 to install solar-powered fresh water well in Angira, reducing the number of deaths from cholera. In 2011, Anne met documentary filmmaker Cindy Speaker, who decided to make her the subject of the movie Well of Dreams.
What was next for Cindy and Anne? One of the biggest problems in Angiro is that girls do not have access to clean, safe sanitary products, and they’re forced to miss four or five days of school every month. With help from Facebook Causes, they raised the money to provide Huru Kits for 500 local girls. Huru kits include reusable pads, underwear, and information about preventing HIV/AIDS. Each kit helps protect a girl from disease, and allows her to finish her education—which is Anne Okelo’s dream. Cindy will pick up the kits in Nairobi this Friday.
We’re thrilled we’ve connected with Cindy Speaker and Anne Okelo. We can’t wait to learn what they’ll do next.
Here at Huru, grants and donations from our friends and supporters make an instant difference—they help us bring free, reusable, safe sanitary supplies to girls who need them. This week, we were happy to get a very generous grant of $10,000 from our supporters, The Horne Family Foundation. The Horne Family Foundation has a long history of offering funds to community groups in the Massachusetts Merrimack Valley region and southern New Hampshire. More recently, they’ve created a global legacy, aiding nonprofits around the world—like Water for People and Lambi Fund of Haiti—that work towards their mission of supporting conservation efforts, economic stability, education, the arts, and public health. We’re proud to be among the 2011 grantees!
Huru had something to celebrate on Tuesday! Our friends at Kenya Commercial Bank Foundation donated laundry detergent soap to be included in 10,000 new Huru Kits. We’ve already provided these free Kits, with reusable pads to more than 15,000 girls. (Huru Kits are manufactured locally and include reusable sanitary pads, underwear, information on HIV prevention, a waterproof bag for carrying the pads and, of course, soap!) Each Huru Kit keeps a girl from missing school, so 10,000 kits is exciting news. With help from our friends and partners, we’re well on our way to meeting our goal to distribute Huru Kits to 35,000 additional girls this year.
We had a party in Mukuru to mark the occasion, with entertainment by girls who attend the Kwa Njenga Primary School. One of our guests was the wonderful Cecilia Mwangi, Miss Kenya 2005. She’s not only a beauty queen—staying in school allowed her to pursue her dream and earn a degree in Engineering. She’s active in supporting Ahadi Kenya Trust’s anti-jigger campaign. Kenya Commercial Bank treated everyone to snacks, and 87 girls received Huru Kits.
Rainworks Omnimedia, producer of travelling multimedia history and science exhibitions, has put together their first annual Rainmakers List, honoring organizations that promote clean water, literacy, and education for girls in the developing world.
Huru made the List!
The Rainmakers
Huru International, for helping menstruating girls in Kenya’s Mukuru slums stay in school by providing them with affordable, locally made sanitary pad kits.
Jacaranda Health, for offering mobile maternity and reproductive health care to poor urban women in East Africa.
Sanergy, for tackling sanitation in the urban slums of Kenya with a sanitation ecosystem that links sani-waste to profits.
Sarvajal, for helping rural Indians gain access to clean water through affordable technologies for remote tracking of water quality and “water ATM” systems.
Labor Voices, founded by Kohl Gill, for enabling migrant workers to voice labor abuses via a Yelp-like mobile app platform.
Love Her Cover, which sells laptop covers made by Liberian women to fund the education of girls in Liberia.
Wello, for inventing a water wheel–a rolling bucket on a wheel that carries five times the amount of water of conventional buckets—that frees women and children in rural India from the arduous work of water collection.
Women’s Global Education, which serves more than 4000 girls in 58 villages in Senegal and Kenya each year with programs that address the root causes of rural poverty from education to female genital mutilation.
“These Rainmakers are addressing urgent problems with smart and innovative solutions and making a critical difference to underserved communities around the world,” says Anu Sridharan, Social Enterprise Liaison at Rainworks. According to Rainworks, “An educated girl changes herself and everything she touches.” We’re excited to be on this List!
(Check out the Rainworks remix of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” here.)
Marit, a 19-year-old Weltwärts volunteer with 8-months of field experience, contacted Huru after pondering the question: “What do my female students do during their period? How can they afford sanitary napkins if they can hardly afford food?”
The Director of the Bella Rehabilitation Centre, where Marit volunteers, told her the girls mainly use “old sponges or pieces of cloth.” Marit felt this was “unbearable” and “unhygienic” so she researched her way to Huru.
Marit’s heartfelt desire to provide a better solution for her students impressed us and we immediately sent her Huru’s procurement criteria/application which Marit quickly returned to us with the required documents.
Huru’s distribution team soon arrived at the school in Dagoretti, Nairobi with Huru Kits in hand. The students were introduced to Huru pads and given the opportunity to demonstrate how to use them. This part of the distribution is always filled with giggles and Bella was no exception.
Weltwärts, the organization that brought Marit to Kenya, is Germany’s voluntary service-abroad program. The program was initiated in 2007 and is the German equivalent of the U.S. Peace Corps.
We applaud Marit for the sense of hope she inspires and for the perseverance she demonstrated in finding a sustainable solution for her students. We are thrilled to count her as a Huru ambassador!
According to the World AIDS ORPHANS Day organization, “More than 15 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. Less than 1 in 10 of these children receive any external support.” The majority of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Many of the girls empowered by Huru have lost one or both parents to AIDS and other diseases.
Julia is one of these girls. Her heartwarming account, in her own words, follows:
“I am a 15 year old orphan in class 7 and have been going through hard times in the streets. A local organization saved me and gave me a place to live and took me to school. But since they could not buy for me pads I used to miss school 1 week every month during my periods. At times I used to use pieces of clothe to protect myself. But since I received Huru pads I don’t miss school. Even my marks have improved because I am no longer stressed during my periods. I can now go to school all through. I have also learned to abstain from sex. Thank you for helping a needy child. “
Julia attends school in Kakamega, Western Province, Kenya. She has been using her Huru kit for more than one year.
This weekend — in support of AIDS orphans and in honor of Mother’s Day — please shine a light on a girl like Julia with your donation of a Huru Kit.
This Mother’s Day, recognize the special Mothers in your life by donating Huru Kits in their honor.
In the developing world, the prevalence of poverty and disease prevents many mothers from providing their daughters with basic supplies like sanitary pads. Celebrate your mother for providing the basics to you by donating a Huru Kit to someone less fortunate. Your mother will be proud!
Your donation of $25 will provide a Kenyan girl with a year’s supply of the resources she needs to attend school throughout her monthly period. Prior to receiving a Huru Kit, many girls miss 3-5 days of school every month. The provision of these simple necessities gives girls the tools they need to take full advantage of their educational opportunities.
Huru will send a handwritten acknowledgment to the recipient of your choice for all Huru Kits donated.
Please donate by Sunday, May 1st for the card to arrive in time for Mother’s Day.(more…)
