Over the last 3 months, it has been a lot of fun to work alongside this brilliant and growing team of four! (Left to right) Godfrey, Timothy, Scholasticaand Rose have all played an important role in our trainings! With the potential of Scholastica moving to Kenya in the next few months, it has been such a privilege to get to work with and train Rose.
The brilliant Godfrey, one of my JENGA colleagues, has been helping us to arrange, and run the training sessions each afternoon for 10young people in his community. On Mondays and Wednesday's Godfrey, Scholastica and Rose use the Wise Choices programme to run sessions on menstrual and women's reproductive health, helping to address myths and to give accurate information. On Tuesday's and Thursdays, this trio train the same group how to make local style pads out of items they have available. We are continuing to receive positive feedback from those who have been trained about both aspects of the training, as well as thanks from community leaders who notice and appreciate the impact it has been having on their neighbourhoods.
Really excitingly, on Fridays Godfrey and Timothy have been running an 8 week training programme, aimed mostly at 15 young men in the same rural community (see below). This programme also uses the Wise Choices curriculum, teaching on subjects such as identity, critical decision making, pregnancy, how to plan for a family, menstrual health and wider reproductive health. It is our hope that through empowering young men with knowledge about their own bodies and women's health, that we can start to see improvements in reproductive health. I've been delighted to hear how the group have been enjoying the trainings and how empowering they've found it.
I'm so excited that now, over 550 people have trained as volunteers who will then train girls and women in their communities how they can make sanitary pads out of items they have available!
After a couple of periods of limited activities due to safety concerns with the elections in January and a second lockdown over the summer, it has been really special to be able to start back again and to hear such positive feedback!
We are expecting 2022 to look quite different for a few reasons. As schools will hopefully be re opening in January, we will need to find a new approach to making sure we can run training sessions when young people are available. We also hope to start training teachers again once schools re open.
Our second hope for next year is to begin making period underwear, similar to styles available in the West. As not all young people own underwear, selling a pair of period underwear for a very reduced, and affordable price, would be an amazing option for many of the women and girls we work with. Nothing like this currently exists in Uganda and so we are currently working to find a way to make this possible and sustainable in Mbale (see below).
My God shall supply- Philippians 4:19
Thank you for your love, encouragement, and support for this work. Over and over, God has shown us His great faithfulness through partners like you.
Giving to Every Girl To donate to the project, please use this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/joanna-brown27
Giving towards Personal Living Costs
As a volunteer with JENGA, I draw no salary from the program budget but fundraise separately to cover my personal living costs, which amount to around £10,000 a year. In order to continue working with JENGA, I would be so grateful if you felt you would like to commit to a once off or a regular donation. If you would like to partner with me and donate £10, £25, £40 or £50 a month, or to support me through a once off amount, please use this link or get in touch for more details - www.give.net/20272655 (this also enables donations to be gift aided)
Thank you so much for your support and interest in the Every Girl project this year! Wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy 2022 and sending love from the team in Mbale!