Bethel Network recently delivered assorted menstrual and personal hygiene products to Clean Start, an organization working with women and girls within the Kenyan custodial system. The products generously provided by P&G and Pwani Oil Limited comprised Always sanitary pads for all ages, bath and laundry soap as well as tee-shirts and lesos. The products were presented by Mary Ndung’u, Bethel Network Director and Robert Kibuga Bethel Network Project Manager and were received by Cyprine Omollo the Clean Start Programs Manager. Speaking at the brief ceremony held at Bethel Network’s offices, Mary was happy with the new partnership between Bethel and Clean Start
“Clean Start is a wonderful organization with which we share a lot in common and we are very happy to be making the delivery of these products to them. We are celebrating menstrual hygiene all this month and Clean Start is reaching a very important demographic of women and girls in penal institutions that are overlooked most of the time and with these products, we are confident that the young women will feel remembered.”
Cyprine expressed her gratitude and said that the donations were to be presented particularly to adolescents they have been working with at Dagoretti Rehabilitation Centre. “It is very challenging for school going girls living with their families when it comes to menstrual hygiene matters, imagine the menstrual hygiene challenges of institutionalized adolescent girls. As Clean Start we are working to give the adolescent girls who are held at Dagoretti Rehabilitation Centre a dignified opportunity on menstrual hygiene matters.”
Dagoretti Rehabilitation Centre is one of three adolescent correctional institutional facilities within Nairobi that Clean Start is working with and the products are targeted to reach 43 adolescent girls who are in contact with the law.
The personal hygiene products will also assist to protect against COVID-19, the effects which are being experienced in Kenya and around the world. As proper handwashing with soap and clean water has been identified by the World Health Organization and Kenya’s Ministry of Health as one of the most important prevention factors of contracting COVID-19, the soaps will go a long way in helping the girls keep the disease at bay.
Mary added, “We are constantly looking to mobilize resources to assist the most in need community members particularly during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are also looking forward to partner with like-minded organizations such as Clean Start because it is only through collaborative efforts that great impact can be made.”
