I got to learn about Give Girls A Chance Foundation through a club I lead. We interviewed the cofounder, Dr. Hauwa Balami, for a piece to commemorate International Women’s Day this year. Inspired by the amazing work the foundation is doing, I decided to volunteer with them during my school break. I had the opportunity to work on their annual Menstrual Hygiene Campaign and it turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.
In line with the theme of this year’s global Menstrual Health Campaign —#EndPeriodPoverty — Give Girls A Chance aimed to provide sanitary towels to 350 girls in two schools: LEA Primary School Area 1, Garki and Junior Secondary School Gbessa, Kuje. Along with the rest of the team, we came up with a timeline to guide GGAC’s campaign activities. The first step was to prepare survey questions to give to the girls to get data on how period poverty affects their education.
Another major step was getting funds and donations for the campaign. We wanted to provide the girls with sanitary towels that would last at least two months. I visited over seven stores to seek donations for the campaign. We were willing to collect monetary donations and also sanitary towels or discounts on them. We also set up a donation drive at different locations in Abuja to enable people who wanted to donate sanitary pads drop them off at their convenience. This was probably the most difficult part of my work for the campaign. I learnt that fundraising can be a hard and stressful task. But I was passionate about the campaign and tried to do as much as I could to help.
In the end, it was such a rewarding experience. It was my first time organizing a campaign of this magnitude and the support I received from the entire Give Girls A Chance team was outstanding. We also created slides to present on the healthy way to use sanitary pads and dispose of them. I also attended one of the mentoring sessions the organization runs, and it brought so much joy to my heart seeing the amazing rapport the mentors had with the girls. These girls are the future of this country and I was excited to listen to them speak about their current and future plans to use their education for good.
The campaign and volunteering with Give Girls A Chance was a productive way to spend my holiday and I cannot wait to do it again.