On May 30, 2022, Heels4Pads Foundation launched the 'Adopt A Dispenser' Pad Project at Dagoretti Special School in Nairobi, Kenya, in partnership with Ari Pad Dispenser and Cigna, a global health service company.
The project aims to alleviate period poverty and empower caregivers and parents with special needs and diverse disabilities economically.
Heels4Pads Foundation donated a digital pads dispenser to the school, which will cover each menstruating girl with pads for three years. Each girl can access pads using a unique individual identification card.
"The card, dubbed 'confidence card,' has a unique ID that collects data on uptake of pads for each student," said Munira Twahir, Founder and process innovator of Ari Dispenser.
According to Edward Macharia, the headteacher of Dagoretti Special School, the school has 160 special needs students, 96 of whom are girls. Macharia expressed gratitude for the initiative, stating that the school had previously faced challenges in providing easy access to menstrual products for their girls.
"I'm amazed that we can have such technology created by a girl," Macharia said. "Thank you so much for remembering us. These girls really have problems, because most parents have financial problems to the extent where buying sanitary towels is a problem."
Heels4Pads initiative, founded by Monicah Muhoya, Angela Waweru, and Angela Muiruri, is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaign under Sister Speaks Global. The initiative aims to raise awareness on period poverty and empower women and girls to advance gender equality and equity through the menstrual health approach.
