Episode 001: Menstrual Health Management in Kenya with Neville Okwaro

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Neville Okwaro (he/him/his) is a Menstrual Hygiene Management trainer for East and Southern Africa, and a Knowledge Management consultant in Kenya. Neville is passionate about addressing gender inequality through policy reforms and by changing social norms around menstruation. In this episode we talk about how he got into this work and what he’s experienced over the course of his long career as an advocate for menstrual health and hygiene. 

Neville talks about the impact of menstrual health on women, girls and men, and how he is working to change the narrative so that women can celebrate their bodies, men can understand how to support them and everyone is able to talk freely about menstrual health. 

Listen and discover how you can make a difference, just like Neville. 

Follow Neville on Twitter: @nevilleokwaro |  Connect on LinkedIn | Email: nevilleokwaro@gmail.com

Highlights from this episode:

  • Changing opinions on gender inequality and menstruation
  • Affecting policy change and how to shift the discourse 
  • How we can hold governments accountable
  • The challenge of managing menstruation with clean water limitations

Bio:

Neville has served as a Menstrual Hygiene Management trainer for East and Southern Africa with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and has supported Kenya’s Ministry of Health Knowledge Management WASH Hub to coordinate the National WASH actors in Kenya, the Seven Technical Working groups (TWG) at the Department of Environmental Health, public health officers in 47 counties and is supporting various MHM interventions in Kenya.  

He has supported the development of Kenya’s Menstrual Hygiene Management Policy and Strategy, MHM in Schools Teachers Handbook, MHM Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators and has trained Government Officers from Nepal, Tanzania, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mozambique and Kenya on MHM. 

Neville is also a member of the leadership committee of the African Coalition of Menstrual Health and the Global Menstrual Health and Hygiene Collective, Policy and advocacy advisor on the MHM at the workplace program by WASHPALS-USAID and Technical Advisory Committee for the Standards Project.


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