Project Location-Kenya
Project Name: Water Sanitation and Hygiene
Polycom Girls is implementing a program to address menstrual hygiene and community health challenges for adolescent girls and boys in informal settlements in Nairobi (primarily Kibera). The initiative ensures menstruation does not impede girls’ education or development, mitigates health risks from unsanitary conditions, and fosters holistic community development through menstrual hygiene, health interventions, and psychosocial support.
- Menstrual Hygiene Support:
- Polycom is providing free sanitary towels and panties to adolescent girls in informal settlements and Homabay counties to ensure uninterrupted education and development.
- Polycom is producing sanitary towels through its own pads company, ensuring a continuous and accessible supply for adolescent girls.
- Health and Sanitation Interventions:
- Polycom is producing and distributing soap to schools in Kibera to clean rudimentary lavatories, reducing cases of urinary tract and fungal infections among adolescent girls and boys.
- The program is referring an average of 15 students monthly to youth-friendly facilities for treatment of health issues related to poor sanitation.
- Psychosocial Support and Inclusion:
- Polycom is providing psychosocial support to several teenage mothers, advocating for their inclusion in all programming.
- The program is promoting a “return to school” policy for teenage mothers, supported by proper financing to facilitate their education.
- Life Skills Education:
- Polycom is delivering life skills education, reaching an average of 2,500 adolescents annually (e.g., 2,924 girls and 905 boys in 2023), contributing to the holistic development of the Kibera community.
- Short-Term: Improved access to menstrual hygiene products, reduced health risks from unsanitary conditions, increased school attendance for girls, and enhanced psychosocial support for teenage mothers.
- Long-Term: Sustained educational opportunities for adolescent girls, reduced health disparities, empowered teenage mothers through reintegration into education, and strengthened community development in Kibera and target counties.
An initiative ensures menstruation does not impede girls’ education or development, mitigates health risks from unsanitary conditions, and fosters holistic community development through menstrual hygiene, health interventions, and psychosocial support.
