MHHM Announcement!

A Pilot Study: Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management (MHHM) in Secondary Schools in Longido, Tanzania

Project Kilimanjaro is excited to announce a partnership with Womenchoice Industries and grassroots organization Elle Peut Naidim to facilitate a pilot project in Longido, Tanzania that focuses on Menstrual Health Hygiene and Management.

The purpose of the pilot is to create a Menstrual Health Hygiene and Management (MHHM) course that is deeply responsive to women’s lived experience with reusable sanitary pads (RSPs). Research has shown that merely providing women with RSPs with little instruction is not effective, because it does not help them navigate the complexities of use. Such complexities include water access, privacy concerns, space to change their pads, and stigmas surround menstruation. To date, a set of best practices surrounding RSPs in the contexts in which they are typically administered does not exist. 

Project Kilimanjaro has devised a structured methodology of ethical program intervention that utilizes key evaluation and monitoring metrics to build efficacy of our programs. This pilot project utilizes our methodology to build capacity of grassroots organizations, secondary schools, and community members.

Elle Peut Naidim is an Arusha-based NGO that focuses on providing a comprehensive, responsive 90 minute MHHM course to communities via their partnership with NGOs that have purchased and seek to disseminate RSPs within a community. 

To that end Project Kilimanjaro is undertaking a 3-month community project in which young women in Secondary Schools in Longido, Tanzania receive RSPs, use them, and in turn provide feedback to the organizations about what it’s really like to use them. We seek to understand women’s concerns with their use—if any—and to co-create creative solutions to any issues that may arise with the RSPs through a process of conversation.