A Million Comforts
Addressing period poverty in the Mukuru settlement of Nairobi
TIME FRAME
LOCATION
8 Months
(Oct 2022 - May 2023)
Nairobi, Kenya
CLIENT
Sauti Afrika
(Non-profit organisation)
SCOPE OF WORK
Social Impact Research,
Enterprise Building
ABOUT
As part of our capstone project at LSE, we collaborated with Sauti Afrika, a youth-based organisation in the Mukuru settlement of Nairobi to address the critical challenge of period poverty in the area. Sauti Afrika’s objective is to develop and manufacture an affordable biodegradable sanitary pad to address the problem of period poverty in Mukuru. To aid its efforts, our team at LSE conducted in-depth research seeking to understand the everyday lived experiences of menstruating women and girls in Mukuru. The project resulted in a comprehensive theory of change and a social business model, comprising a revenue, partnership, and ecosystem model.
This project was a group effort, alongside an A-team of talented and wonderful women: Charu Bakshi, Emma Macfarlane, Pangbaramee Srichai, Ruhi Manek and Shu Yee Chee. <3
PROBLEM
STATEMENT
How might we support the creation of a circular and sustainable menstrual health ecosystem in Mukuru, to help alleviate period poverty and improve access to education?
PROBLEM AREA AND CONTEXT: MUKURU
Mukuru, one of Kenya's largest informal settlements, houses a population exceeding 301,000 as of 2017, characterized by a high population density. The gender distribution is approximately 60% male and 40% female, with an average age of 27. Despite a relatively low average monthly household income of 12,000 KSh ($100), over 50% have achieved secondary education.
Alarmingly, only 1% of the population has access to both a water source and a private toilet. Mukuru faces heightened vulnerability to climate change-induced hazards, given inadequate infrastructure, pervasive poverty, and the densely populated environment.
Source: 2017 Situational Analysis ; Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Kwa Rueben and Viwandani as provided by Sauti Afrika.
PROBLEM AREA AND CONTEXT: PERIOD POVERTY
Across Kenya, girls face significant disruptions in their education due to menstruation, missing almost four school days per month on average, amounting to approximately 20% of the school year (Velimirovic, 2021). The absence of proper menstrual hygiene resources forces women and girls to resort to unhygienic alternatives such as old fabric, contributing to reproductive health risks. This lack of access to menstrual products leaves women and girls vulnerable to exploitation, as they are targeted for sexual favors in exchange for these essential items (Velimirovic, 2021).
Source: Velimirovic, C. (2021, February 26). A Look at the Impact of Period Poverty on Girls in Kenya. Catalyst.
Under the Basic Education Amendment Act (2017), women and girls in Mukuru enrolled in schools are liable to receive free pads. As the research progressed, we learned how the pads received under this scheme only partially satisfy the annual pad requirement for girls. To fill the gap, several local NGOs and community organisations, such as Sauti Afrika, have stepped in.
A mere 46% of households in Mukuru can afford waste collection services, forcing the remaining majority to resort to unsanitary practices like open defecation and the use of 'flying toilets,' involving the disposal of waste in plastic bags.
All these factors have made sanitation, menstruation, and defecation some of Mukuru’s largest threats to health and wellbeing (Mukuru Situation Analysis, 2017).
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK AND APPROACH
Our research looked into the following broad themes of inquiry:
a) What are the lived experiences of women & girls, including existing conditions and challenges in relation to menstruation?
b) What are the existing ecosystems of support and social institutions within which girls experience period poverty? What role do they play in supporting or hindering efforts to eliminate period poverty?
c) To what extent is the solution and value proposition offered by A Million Comforts Initiative appropriate and feasible?
L to R: Research Methods; Research Sample and Participant List Source: MG4G2 Report, SIE, LSE 2023
.jpg)
Above: Compiled codes (smaller circles) and their overall themes (larger circles) Source: MG4G2 Report, SIE, LSE 2023
Above: Research collection process. In addition to 1-on-1 interviews, we conducted participatory art-based research methods, where participants expressed themselves through sketching. Source: MG4G2 Report, SIE, LSE 2023
KEY FINDINGS
KEY FINDINGS
Our findings are in two layers, just as our research was. The first layer of findings was derived from our virtual interviews with our participants which primarily comprised of women and girls, as well as their caregivers such as parents and teachers. Our second layer of findings were derived from our in-person interviews, conducted in Mukuru itself, with women and girls, as well as external stakeholders and potential partners.
We learned that there is no singular point during the menstruation cycle where women and girls face challenges, rather it is a spectrum with different challenges at different points. Our introduction to the period poverty problem in Mukuru pointed towards 4 broad themes:
perceptions around menstruation, accessibility, availability and disposal of pads.
.jpg)
A. Existing Scenario
Women and girls struggled with a myriad of issues on a regular basis, encompassing negative attention about them menstruating and practical difficulties in consistently accessing and affording pads. Although menstruation is openly discussed in schools, it remains a taboo topic within households, leading to women experiencing a lot of shame and stigmatisation.
In schools, girls face mockery for menstruating, and their financial constraints regarding pad affordability become a target for older men seeking to exploit them for sexual favours in exchange for sanitary products. Despite efforts by the government and various CSR programs to volunteer in distributing pads among communities and schools, there is often a shortage of supply and irregular distribution.
Due to these challenges, women and girls have established safe spaces for open discussions among themselves. This inner network of female friendships serves as an informal supply of pads amongst eachother, wherein they lend eachother pads when needed. This informal network also extends to local stores, where shop owners provide pads on a credit basis for those unable to afford them.
B. Financial Independence through Community
Building on the theme of informal means of community mobilisation, we discovered more systems of support women have created for themselves. A strong sense of sisterhood enabled independence from external entities and fostered an entrepreneurial spirit among women and girls.
A pivotal medium of this financial independence were ‘chamas’, or self-formed groups of lending, in various forms such as merry-go-round, table banking, and general savings groups. Each chama would be based on its own set of rules and a mutual understanding between its members. Different chamas serve different purposes. For example, some chamas enabled women to pay school fees for their children, while other chamas allowed women to fund their own enterprises. Participation in these chamas is deemed mandatory, and members are liable to pay fines for absenteeism.
Chamas thus act as important mediums of connection as well as practical gateways to financial freedom. They make a compelling case for designing interventions that integrate seamlessly with the existing chama ecosystem, suggesting the potential creation of a specialized chama tailored to address menstrual needs.
INTERVENTIONS
Collating our findings, we devised four main areas of intervention:
1. Develop an end-to-end supply chain (sourcing materials, manufacturing sanitary pads, developing distribution networks, facilitating last mile access).
2. Leverage formal & informal ecosystems of support to create safer access points for menstruating girls and women, providing a more affordable sanitary product offering, while improving environmental sanitation through the product’s biodegradability aspect.
3. Oversee the development and coordination of community-based savings groups (chamas) to administer rotating funds for pad access.
INTERVENTIONS
Above: Theory of Change elaborating on our points of intervention, and their long term impact on the community.
Our findings highlight that, in the Mukuru context, a fundamental challenge extends beyond the affordability of menstrual resources to ensuring consistent access. Under the guidance of Sauti Afrika, menstrual pad chamas have been established, where a self-selected group of women and girls pools weekly savings to secure a reliable supply of menstrual pads. This strategy taps into the familiar financial framework of chamas in Mukuru, a system already well-versed by the community's women and girls, and one that has demonstrated success when implemented and managed effectively.
ECOSYSTEM CHANGE
To sustain the validity and consistency of our solution, we approached Sauti Afrika with a model of overall ecosystem change over targetted points of intervention. This ecosystem model aimed to address the factors affecting the nature of demand and supply between stakeholders, from a give-and-take equation to one that relies on self-sustenance.
Presently te supply and demand of sanitary pads is extremely linear. It is subject to the buyer's ability to financially procure the pads, or the supplier's ability to make the pads available.
Our proposal targeted enabling autonomy among our beneficiaries across several layers of the present ecosystem. Sauti Afrika was to be directly involved in overseeing Chama activity, and ensuring the participation of beneficiaries. Through the Chamas, our beneficiaries would have the opportunity to achieve financial independence for menstruating. In the long run, we hope to enable a revised mental model pertaining to menstruation, one that has evolved from something in the shadows, to one in which beneficiaries find comfort and self-sustenance.
ECOSYSTEM CHANGE
CONCLUSION
This project created several learning and emotional journeys, all of which brought a holistic understanding of the inner makings of a social impact research project. Having a direct look into the lives and contexts of beneficiaries proved to be extremely influential in the creation of solutions. It provided a deep understanding of their worlds, such as interpersonal communication, public outreach through flyers and signage, the establishment of small-and-medium enterprises by residents of Mukuru, and the environmental and spatial contexts that shape their experiences.
For example: Public Outreach Communication
Observing communication within spatial contexts offered insights into how the community interacts internally and how external entities engage with them. Interaction within the community was characterized by warmth, a visual orientation and hand-painted elements. In contrast, signage commissioned by external entities, such as donor institute signages, tended to be text-heavy, and emphasized communicating the company's motto and message.
In conclusion, period poverty is as complex as it is sensitive. It takes into account several realities, and provides an opportunity for women to be in-charge of several aspects of their lives. We hope to harness the power of ecosystems and collaboration, and in turn provide the women and girls of Mukuru with dignity and agency.