Our Impact
Women & Girls
Research, partnerships, community stories, and updates from Days for Girls teams around the world.
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Menstrual Health & School Absenteeism In Laos: New Research Findings
What’s the connection between periods and student absenteeism – and how do we help menstruating youth stay in school? That’s the critical question that Menstrual health and factors associated with school absence among secondary school girls in Luang Prabang Province, Lao People’s Democratic Republic: A cross-sectional study aims to address. Published last month in the…
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Building Bridges to End Gender-Based Violence: How Prevention and Menstrual Equity Go Hand in Hand
Each year, thousands participate in 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, a campaign hosted by UN Women to raise awareness and catalyze action to end violence against women and girls. Harkening to the campaign’s signature color, this year’s theme is “Orange the world: End violence against women now!” Over the past year and…
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Advancing Menstrual Equity in Malawi
At Days for Girls, we envision a world in which communities, nations and global leaders all come together to fight for menstrual equity and rally in support of every girl. This year, we’re closer than ever to making this dream a reality. For the first time in DfG history, we’re poised to scale our impact…
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The Days for Girls Podcast: My Top 5 Favorite Episodes!
Last week, we published the 25th episode of the Days for Girls Podcast! It has been an absolute privilege to host so many brilliant leaders, innovators and change-makers each week for the past five months. To celebrate this tremendous milestone, I want to share a few of my favorite episodes with you. These are the…
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Menstrual Stigma In Nepal: Key Insights (Part 1)
In the remote foothills of Western Nepal, menstruators face unique and devastating barriers to health, dignity and opportunity. Here, the cultural practice of Chhaupadi banishes menstruating women and girls to cow sheds, mud huts or open fields during their period – exposing them to life-threatening elements and causing unbearable shame. This extreme form of discrimination…
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She Can Do It! Spring Campaign
Days for Girls is thrilled to announce our inaugural spring campaign! She Can Do It isn’t just a fundraiser…it’s a chance to recognize the innate potential, resilience and courage of every girl. 𝙆𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙡𝙚𝙙𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧. Access to timely, accurate health information is critical to shattering the stigma around menstruation and building a more equitable world. That’s…
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Fostering Female Leadership In Eswatini
Days for Girls loves collaborating with local organizations that uplift and invest in the next generation of women leaders! That’s why we were so thrilled to partner with Gone Rural Bomake – Swaziland this International Women’s Day. Together, we launched the Emblii Leadership Program: an inaugural leadership program for girls in rural Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). The…
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International Women’s Day 2021
Are you ready? March 8th is International Day of the Woman (IWD): one day to celebrate the achievements of women around the world and recommit to the gender equality movement. This year, under the theme “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world, UN Women invites us to the honor the incredible resilience of…
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The Fight Against Female Genital Cutting
Around the world, women and girls face constant threats to their health, safety and dignity. Days for Girls specializes in mitigating menstruation-related harm (like period poverty), but we stand firmly against all types of gender-based violence. This includes Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): a painful, destructive process that cuts and removes parts of the female genitalia…
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The Shadow Pandemic
Guest Post By: Elizabeth Titus There is a “shadow pandemic” in the wake of COVID-19 that poses a major risk for women and girls and threatens their hard-won progress toward gender equality. As the United Nations Population Fund pointed out in a March 2020 brief, “The pandemic will compound existing gender inequalities, and increase risks…
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How Menstrual Health Impacts Education
How does Menstrual Health & Hygiene (MHH) influence girls’ ability to succeed? One major way is through its impact on education. Education is a key determinant of better livelihood options, greater economic mobility and ability to thrive. In fact, it has such a strong impact on a person’s quality of life that it was…
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International Day Of The Girl Recap
Thank you to everyone who helped Days for Girls celebrate International Day Of The Girl this month! This was a truly special opportunity to showcase how DfG mobilizers are using their voices to build a more equal future for girls – from U.S. advocacy volunteers rallying against the tampon tax, to Enterprise leaders taking a…
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Fighting Menstrual Shame In Kenya
(Trigger Warning: this post discusses suicide and self-harm) On September 6th, 2020, Days for Girls Bomet Enterprise organized an event to commemorate the life of 14-year-old Jackline Chepngeno, a local student who was driven to suicide by menstrual shaming last fall. Jackline was a Grade 6 student at Kapyangek Primary School when her very first…
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Elevating Local Leadership In Cambodia
Project G: Youth For Menstrual Equity Heng Ry sits comfortably at the head of the classroom at Streth Secondary School in Siem Reap, Cambodia. She’s holding a Days For Girls Kit in her hands; a flipchart diagram of a uterus rests beside her. The 21-year-old university student is here to teach teenagers all about menstrual…
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Photo Essay: Manyatta, Kenya Distribution
Photographer Laurie Nowling recently distributed DfG Kits in Kenya. This is her incredible story. In February of 2019, I was introduced to Davis and Sharon, a Kenyan couple working to fight poverty and educate children in the Manyatta slums. Sharon shared that the girls were going to great lengths to purchase period products. Many of…
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Creating Pathways Through Film
Award winning video journalist and filmmaker Tania Safi and video assist Rachelle Hair recently spent two days with DfG Lebanon learning about DfG’s response to the refugee crisis in Lebanon and participating in several DfG Kit distributions, all while filming the experience in order to create the incredible video, “Turning Periods into Pathways,” as part…
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Postpartum bleeding + FAME Africa
Over the years, Days for Girls has learned that our DfG Heavy Flow Kit works not only to help women and girls manage their menstruation, but is also a wonderful answer to help women also manage the bleeding they have after childbirth (lochia) that can be very heavy and generally lasts about six weeks and…
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Tackling Zambian taboos in prisons & schools
The topic of menstruation is a taboo subject where I live. For the past seven years, my family has been living as Baptist missionaries in Zambia, Africa. While we mainly focus on the Deaf community, recently I have felt a tug toward the women in our local prisons. This past January I was approved to…
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Days for Girls = Dignity for Girls
It’s the moment that South Sudanese school girls dread: coming on their period while at school. A schoolgirl from Wau told us, “I feel uncomfortable because my blood will be coming out and I will want to get out of class… it will distract my lesson so it’s better to stay at home.” Due to…
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Dancing for Days: Refugees Thrilled by DfG Kits
Experts tell us it’s important to get out up out of our office chairs once and move — a stretch, a shake, get the blood flowing! At Days for Girls, we take this advice a step farther. Recently our team got up from our spreadsheets and reports and went all the way to Kyaka Refugee…