Kenyan girl with kit

Zambian girls with kits

Save a Girl kit

Provides reusable sanitary pads to help developing-world girls stay in school.

LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA, USA, May 31, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- California nonprofit, The Global Uplift Project (TGUP), is tackling what it says is one of the greatest “preventable” human tragedies in the world: that girls in the developing world drop out of school because they have no way to manage their period.

According to the organization, more than 20,000,000 girls drop out every year because they have no way to deal with menstruation. The figure might be as high as 50,000,000 the group says, citing UNICEF data.

The girls miss as much as a week of school every month. Soon, they are so far behind, they drop out. The loss of human potential is tragic, says the group, because it is entirely preventable.

TGUP provides girls in developing countries with a kit of washable, reusable sanitary pads. The program is called “Save a Girl.” One Save a Girl kit costs $6 to make and is given free of charge to the girls. Properly taken care of, it lasts three years.

Each distribution of Save a Girl kits also includes education on human biology, hygiene, self-defense, and how to care for and use the kit. This might be the only time the girls ever receive this type of information, which also addresses local myths and misconceptions about menstruation.

“Keeping a 13 year-old girl in school for three years for $2 per year might be one of the highest returns on human investment in the world,” according to Brenda Birrell, Director of TGUP's Save a Girl program. “It is certainly one of the most humane,” she said.

Birrell cites research from the World Bank suggesting that investing in young women provides the highest return on international development assistance.

“Better educated girls exhibit a wide array of pro-development traits,” said Birrell. “They start sex later, have fewer partners, are more likely to use birth control, have fewer children, make sure those children are better educated, have better vocational options, and contribute more to their communities,” she said.

“The single most cost-effective thing we can do to improve the world is to keep girls in school,” according to Birrell. “Save a Girl does exactly that, for $2 per year.”

The tragedy of girls dropping out applies not just to the loss to society. It applies to the girls, as well, according to Birrell.

“When a girl drops out of school,” said Birrell, “she is more likely to be sold as a child bride, or sold into the sex trade.”

“She can be forced into menial work and is often at risk of sexual predation. In no case is she able to realize her human potential,” she said.

The Global Uplift Project manufactures Save a Girl sanitary kits of its own design in sewing centers it operates in Kenya, Nepal, and Tanzania. It has distributed more than 30,000 such kits to girls in eight developing world countries.

The group has raised funds from private foundations that cover its operating costs—literature, website, travel, etc. Because of that, it states that “100% of every dollar donated goes to the donor’s intended project.”

TGUP is carrying out a crowd-funding campaign on the popular platform, Indiegogo. After only two days, it raised 375% of its initial goal of $6,000. So far, this will allow an additional 4,000 girls to stay in school.

Donations can be made on The Global Uplift Project’s website, at tgup.org. TGUP is a registered 501c3 nonprofit. All donations are 100% tax deductible.

Robert Freeman, Founder
The Global Uplift Project
+1 650-575-3434
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