Ole Sokoine Secondary School ( Monduli- Arusha)

Children are vulnerable and the responsibility for these children lies with their parents and with society when the children are young. However, not every young child is lucky enough to receive menstrual hygiene education from their parents or educators. 

There are many girls in the Kilimanjaro, Arusha regions and Tanzania in its entirety who, due to taboos, have poor knowledge of menstruation. This is a serious issue which should be dealt with by the authorities. Fortunately, Dynamic Community Impact Org (DCI Org) and other like-minded organisations in Tanzania have come together to educate girls about menstrual hygiene and to break down the taboos. 

On the 13th of July this year, DCI Org participated in an event in the Arusha region in the Monduli district, which is located in the Northeastern part of Tanzania, close to the border of Kenya and close to the Kilimanjaro region. The school where the event took place is named Ole Sokoine Secondary school, after Edward Sokoine who was a two-term Prime Minister of Tanzania from 1977 to 1984.

We successfully talked about menstrual hygiene to 446 students, 224 girls and 222 boys. The students were energetic and interactive when we were talking about the topic and they asked many questions in order to know more about menstruation.

A few examples of the questions that we received are:

• Why can girls have stomach pain when they are on their period?
• Why do some of the girls have longer periods than other girls?
• Is it a problem when a girl is already 18 years old and never had their period?

Apart from those questions, we gave the students sticky notes to write to us what they learned from us. We received a lot of positive feedback from both boys and girls. They told us that they now know a lot about the menstrual cycle, about how to clean themselves during their periods, about how to wear and remove sanitary pads and about how to dispose of the sanitary pads in the right way. After the event, we also distributed sanitary pads to the girls.

It was a really successful event and we are looking forward to visiting the Ole Sokoine secondary school again and to visiting all other primary and secondary schools around Monduli.

We would like to thank Ole Sokoine secondary schools administration and to thank all students of the Institute of Accountancy in Arusha. Also we would especially like to thank Ayana Philemon for organising her fellow students and making this event happen.

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Maasai women.

It’s time to empower less privileged women!
Have you ever asked yourself: what would your life look like if you were a Maasai woman?
What are the challenges that you’d face? How will you spend each day? Will you achieve your
dreams? What about your speech; can you speak up about any topic?
In order to answer all these questions, on the 14 th of June we visited a Maasai village in Hai
District (Kilimanjaro region). The women and kids were doing their usual routine: the women
were doing some chores while the kids were playing around. Their faces brightened up as soon
as they saw us. We asked them to gather around so we could ask them some questions.
The first question our volunteer asked was: “As Maasai women, what are your struggles?”
After a moment of silence, one of the women spoke up on the behalf of everyone, saying that
they would love to have income generating activities. Nevertheless they are unable to have jobs
and take care of their families. As we expected, the reason was poverty. Maasai women live in
poverty which strips them of education and paralyzes their ability to have their own cultural
beadwork businesses.
Dynamic Community Impact Organization will try to raise money to help women and their
daughters have a better quality of life by manifesting their potential and creativity.
Our team also tackled the menstrual hygiene topic by discussing hygiene methods and access to
sanitary pads. The women were surprisingly shy to participate. They were avoiding eye-contact
as much as possible, which reflects the taboo and shame surrounding menstruation. However,
there was a woman who was confident enough to speak up. She stressed that family members
don’t usually talk about menstruation because it’s considered inappropriate. She added that
when it comes to sanitary pads, they have limited access to them. Women don’t have the
luxury to use sanitary pads for every cycle; some cycles their only choice is to use napkins or
piece of clothes.
Therefore, Dynamic Community Impact Organization had already embarked on the journey of
‘the sanitary pads donation boxes’. We are proud to have donation boxes in supermarkets. In addition, we have other fundraising activities to help us distribute pads to girls in schools and villages.

African Child Day

On the 16th of June Dynamic Community Impact Organization participated in the commemoration of the International Day of the African Child at Maendeleo Primary School, located at Kahe- ward (Moshi district in Kilimanjaro region).

The International Day of the African Child event attracted many children: more than 600 children from different schools attended the event. The guest of honour was Mrs. Beatric Mwinuka, the Rural Planner Officer in Moshi District. The other guests consisted of community development officers, district development officers, social welfare officers and parents. 

We are happy to be one of the organizations that supports children and gives them a platform to sing, dance and perform plays. Our aim is to empower children by making them happy. Their messages are important to us. The children didn't only have fun, but they also received indirect awareness lessons through some songs and plays. The students performed plays which had powerful messages that addressed topics such as: child abuse, early pregnancy, dropping out of school and child rape. The message is delivered in an entertaining, not in boring way and also makes an impact. 

The theme of this year states that "Children are the foundation of the Nation. We should protect, care and develop them". In Swahili it's written as: "Mtoto ni msingi wa Taifa Endelevu; tumtunze, tumlinde na kumwendeleza".

Dynamic Community Impact Organization will keep ensuring that more events like this will take place. We are excited to organize and participate in child rights events. We believe in youth as one of the key agents to bring positive changes in our society.

Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene at Kishumundu Primary School

Another impactful school visit. Getting into action is what Dynamic Community Impact Organization is all about.

Our team is working towards promoting menstrual hygiene in rural and disadvantaged areas of Tanzania. Hence, we are targeting schools such as Kishumundu, Mnini and Mruwia primary and secondary schools.

Our aim is to break the boundaries around menstruation, reduce negative stigma surrounding this topic and stress the importance of menstrual hygiene. Thus, allowing girls to feel empowered and confident about this natural phenomenon within classrooms and society.

On 29^th May, we delivered an extended awareness session at Kishumundu primary school to a class of 72 children aged 10-15. We introduced the menstruation cycle, discussed menstrual hygiene and initiated conversations about puberty. The session was given to both girls and boys in order to increase their knowledge and understanding of these crucial topics.

Over the course of the session, we realized that most of the pupils had never previously seen a sanitary pad. This reflects a certain taboo around menstruation along with limited access to pads. However, the team was keen on teaching girls to properly use and dispose sanitary pads in order to avoid skin irritation, infections and Hepatitis B.

Additionally, we were impressed by the children’s receptiveness and engagement. They all were open to participate in discussions and share their thoughts.

As a conclusion, we are convinced that bringing up awareness on menstruation will create a friendly environment for Tanzanian girls to thrive. We believe that normalizing conversation on that topic will enable future generations to confidently pursue their academic, personal and professional ambitions regardless of gender.

We’re so proud to have had an impact on 72 children. As a next step, we’re planning to target our efforts towards providing girls with sanitary pads to ensure effective implementation of menstrual hygiene standards.