Tailor-Made in Uganda

Written by Andrea Gourgy

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Armed with needle and thread, Carrie-Jane Williams helps Ugandan girls stay in school.

In the small Ugandan town of Kitengesa, it is estimated that girls miss up to one week of school every month simply because of their periods. So, when 25-year-old Carrie-Jane Williams gave a kit of reusable sanitary pads to a group of female students at Kitengesa Comprehensive Secondary School, it’s not surprising that they were happy. In fact, the girls started—literally—to dance for joy in the schoolyard.

Kitengesa is a trading centre located about two hours south of the capital, Kampala, in the Masaka District of Uganda. It has a number of banana plantations and several dirt roads that connect the town to smaller, surrounding villages. Students sometimes walk on these roads for two hours to get to schools in Kitengesa. It is here that Williams, a master’s student focusing on literacy and international development at The University of British Columbia (UBC), completed a volunteer placement at the community library.

Williams, a native of St. John's Newfoundland, explains that most students in the area are poor and have trouble paying their school fees. Menstrual pads are generally not affordable for the average family. “When they’re on their periods they can’t afford to buy actual disposable pads, which are about 2000 Ugandan shillings per package—roughly CAD$1. The money for that is not a priority because they need food, water and batteries for radios or lights. So, in the past, a lot of them have used things like leaves and old rags.” For girls who get their periods while at school, there are no resources like private bathrooms or running water to clean themselves. As a result, many girls stay home.

The issue of girls missing school when they are menstruating is not unique to Kitengesa, or even Uganda, but the solution Williams proposed is novel. While most other projects have focused on supplying disposable or reusable pads from abroad, Williams’ goal was to actually get women in Uganda to make the pads themselves. She hoped to not only fulfill a need, but also to help the women create a sustainable business in the process.

When Williams first accepted a volunteer position in Uganda, it wasn’t related to reusable pads at all.  In fact, it was supposed to be simply an English-teaching placement arranged by UBC’s Go Global programme. But Williams took an active role in shaping her assignment and, through research and planning, she transformed it into something greater before she even left Vancouver.

Williams had been reading about menstruation as a barrier to education. Specifically, she read a thesis by Dr. Shelly Jones, a student of her supervisor, about girls’ education in Uganda. Williams was struck by an interview Jones had done, where a young Ugandan girl asked about women in Canada. Williams explains, “One of the girls, after she felt comfortable with her [Jones], asked her, ‘What’s it like in Canada? Do girls miss school because they’re on their periods, too?’ It was pretty powerful stuff.”



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