 |
| Part of the community members benefited from Mask distribution |
<Activities conducted>
1. Radio talk show in Wakiso
2. Air Spot Messages to raise awareness on support for
girls’ education and increase on reusable sanitary pad users in all the 3 target
districts
3. Happy
pad promotion Centre in Wakiso, and Butambala
4. Distribution
of face masks- in Wakiso
5. Monitoring
visit to the two project schools in Mubende (Kiyita and Christ the King) to
check on the progress of their un finished facilities
1. Radio
talk show in Wakiso and Mubende
One hour radio
talk show was conducted at Voice of Kiryagonja on 15/12/2022. The radio talk
show of Mubende was conducted at Luna Fm on the 14th /12/2022. The
community was reminded about the need to support adolescent girls especially
those who cannot afford sanitary material so that they can comfortably stay at
school. The major talking points included marketing the happy pads where the
community members were encouraged to have access to pads at a lower price once
they buy in bulk and how to ensure a friendly MHM environment at home since
children are for holidays.
2. Air Spot Messages to raise awareness on support for
girls’ education and increase on reusable sanitary pad users
Spot messages about Menstrual Hygiene
Management, girls’ education and reusable sanitary pad are aired as follows;
· Mubende via Luna FM 6 times a day.
· Wakiso via Voice of Kiryagonja 10 times a day.
· Butambala aired 11 times at voice of Kikambwe and 22 times at voice of Butende
3. Happy-pad
promotion Centre in Wakiso
The 2nd training centre would be established in Butambala and the team will be reporting about it in the subsequent months.
 |
| A half of Happy-Pad promotion centre’s furniture and tools being taken away to Butambala |
The Promotion Centre in Wakiso enrolled 4 girls who booked to undertake training for 1 month. They started in mid-December and will be completing by mid-January 2023. These are coming from 30 kilometers away -Busukuma Subcounty -Wakiso District. Each made a contribution of 100,000/=. being accommodated at the centre. This money is used to buy for them food and pay for the cook preparing meals for them. The fees charged helps to maintain the trainees. Meeting costs of keeping the trainees is one way of sustaining the centre.
This has provided us a lesson that the pad
making centre needs to plan for accommodation of trainees because not all of
them come from within the centre neighborhood. We think VOTU will take note of
that.
Trainees at the centre
Happy-pad
Promotion Center at Ngando sub county, Butambala
The team received tools including 2 sewing
machines, shelves, 2 chairs, 2 desks, 1 table and scissors from SORAK for the
establishment of the Happy-pad promotion center in Butambala.
・ Location: A room where the
promotion center will be set up was identified in Ngando Trading Center.
Promotion center will open to the public in week 4 of January.
・ Online Training: The team prepared online training content and material including a power point presentation and feedback forms for the training. The training is scheduled to run on 21st Jan 2023 and 22nd Jan 2023 on open zoom invitation. As an activity, this will raise awareness via the online platform as well as communicating project progress to them.
・ Happy Pad: The team is finalizing the packaging of the reusable pad so as to meet the market standards and competitiveness before the actual product is put on the sale.
Pad production is scheduled to kick off in week 3 of January 2023
4. Distribution
of masks in Wakiso district
A
total of 345 face masks that were produced in November at the Promotion Centre
due to Ebola pandemic and Covid-19 were distributed (150) to the community
members in Wakiso especially the ones near the centre including children and a
few selected adults. This was done through working with the local leadership,
People were encouraged to put on face masks to prevent and help fight the
diseases.
5. Monitoring
visit to the two project schools in Mubende (Kiyita and Christ the King Primary
school) to check on the progress of their un finished facilities.
The project officer paid a monitoring visit to the two
project schools including Kiyita Primary school and Christ the King Primary
school to check on the progress of the facilities. So far, the toilet is in
place at Christ the King. The changing room and washroom with provision of a 10
litter jerrycan, soap and a basin to cater for the girls’ hygiene during
menstruation are in place at Kiyita Primary school as below.
Positive influence
· During the radio talk show at Voice of
Kiryagonja, the Secretary for Women participated and appreciated the initiative
of ensuring that girls are kept in schools. She promised to work with SORAK to
conduct community sensitization regarding MHM and Sexual Reproductive Health
issues.
· The trainees at the Promotion centre are eager
to learn and trainable because they are all literates.
Challenges
· Ebola outbreak in Mubende and its associated
lockdown from 16th October to 17th December disorganized
project activities. Although the lockdown has been lifted, the festive season
could hardly allow for smooth running of the project activities. However,
project activities will normalize in January when all government offices will
be officially open including the project schools.
· All the four trainees at promotion
center in Wakiso did not have prior
knowledge in the use of the sewing machine which necessitated them to begin
from scratch. The trainers are accommodative and made sure that all the
trainees are on track.
Recommendations
· School monitoring of facilities in all the 3
respective districts should be done as soon as schools resume in February 2023.
· Selling pads on a promotion can be one of the
strategies to increase the sales.
