End period poverty in Uganda

In Uganda, according to the global citizen page, 1 in 4 girls aged 12 to 18 drop out of school because they cannot afford menstrual products, putting them at increased risk of child marriage, teen pregnancy, extreme poverty and domestic violence. Due to this lack of access to menstrual products, poverty-stricken girls and women often resort to dangerous alternatives such as plant leaves and old rugs, toilet paper or offering sexual favours to men in exchange for money to buy sanitary pads. This makes it impossible for these under privileged young women to handle their menstruation with dignity.

Nantume Masturah is the founder of Youngsters' Appeal (YSA), an organisation that aims to end this cycle of period poverty. Her story was published in the International Schools Magazine 2022 and she has since also been able to share her personal struggles with period poverty and passion to curb its effects in several podcast features. Through her MYP school project she already changed the lives of 370 girls in her village by providing them with reusable sanitary pads. These were sewn together with the girls with the support of her former school Xianliangjiatan International School and the IB innovators grant.

Now, she is an IB student at Ridley College, Canada, and she continues to transform girls' lives through her foundation Youngsters' Appeal, teaching the girls valuable life skills such as sewing, providing re-usable pads for underprivileged girls in school and offering education and counselling services with her team.

Her current goal is to create more work opportunities within her foundation Youngsters’ Appeal (YSA) for the girls in her community who have dropped out of school and those facing period poverty. Nantume hopes to build these girls' skills, enabling them to be self-confident and independent women being able to dream and achieve.

Your support will help Nantume expand her efforts, by covering the total annual cost of rent and electricity of a workspace, the acquisition of additional sewing machines and materials, and the provision of simple meals to the girls working at Youngsters' Appeal.

We, the Global Issues Network team of International School Bremen and Amsterdam International Community School, are a group of students who met Nantume at the Changemakers Conference 2023 held at Frankfurt International School, now collaborating together with the aim of supporting another 200 girls.

Will you join us in ending period poverty and nurturing girls' dreams?

In addition to donating, you can also show your support through signing and sharing Nantume's petition Ban the cycle around period poverty and following @youngstersappeal on instagram.

"United as one, our voices of change hold the power to make unbreakable bonds, creating a kinder world filled with compassion and understanding in every heart." - Nantume Masturah