Girl Empowerment: Impact of our MHM Teacher Training Project
Here at Made With Hope, we are passionate about Girls Empowerment, and for good reason: many of the girls in the Tanzanian communities in which we work can miss school up to 3-4 days a month because they don’t have facilities or products to use during their period. This inequality is something we have been working hard to rectify, and great progress has been made at 5 schools in Arusha: Maweni, Majimoto, Mshikamano, Mzimuni and Marurani Primary Schools
The Training of Teachers Project
In order to tackle the dangerous stigma around menstruation, Made With Hope embarked on their Training of Teachers (T.o.T) project- an exciting addition to our Girl Empowerment programme, aiming to support girls’ education and menstrual hygiene management (MHM).
This project, which has been delivered by Femme International, has included training teachers to deliver accurate education on puberty, reproductive anatomy, sexual health, body hygiene, menstruation, and menstrual management. The T.o.T project was carried out on the 14th and 15th December 2020, and took the form of 2 eight hour sessions. These sessions provided a platform for teachers to share their opinions and to ask important questions, as well as being provided teachers with training manuals.
Follow Up Meeting
Recently, the Made With Hope team, alongside Femme International, carried out a follow up meeting in order to foster feedback from the teachers involved and to be updated on the project’s success.
The teachers discussed the impact the positive impact the training had on creating a safe space for Menstrual Hygiene discussion at school.
“ Through the training I received, will help me to be a good ambassador of Made With Hope and Femme International at my school by training young girls and providing Menstural Hygeine Management support.”
“I have started seeing the impact of the training soon after I went back to school and started helping my students with Menstrual Hygiene Management knowledge.”
A topic that was raised by many teachers was how useful it would be to involve boys in the education around menstruation. In order to truly break the taboo in Tanzanian communities, they felt that outreach work was needed amongst the male population too.
This feedback session was really useful for Made With Hope and has given us lots of ideas on how to progress forward with our Girls Empowerment programme. As well as discussing the programme, our teachers also received their certificates too, which was a great cause for celebration.
Wider Impact
The work that Made With Hope carries out for our Girls Empowerment programme plays into a wider vision amongst the international development sector of promoting gender equality. Here at Made With Hope, we know that if 50% of a population is unable to reach their full potential, due to inequalities that are outside of their control, then communities will suffer in a dramatic way. That’s why we are so proud of the progress our Girl Empowerment programme is making, in changing the lives of women in Tanzania.
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Thank you!
Written By Molly Deegan