Target reached!
You can help girls across Malawi stay in school when they have their periods by pled...
Her Education Matters Njenga
Malawi
Aim
Girls in Malawi are missing up to 5 days of school a month when they have their periods. We want to make a change.
Help girls in Malawi stay in school with dignity and confidence
Every month, over 500 girls from Njenga Primary and Secondary schools in Malawi face a heartbreaking challenge: when their period arrives, many miss school because they don’t have access to sanitary products, clean washing facilities, or safe changing spaces. Without these essentials to manage menstruation safely and with dignity, girls are forced to stay home - sometimes for days - falling behind in class and risking dropping out altogether.
Imagine having to use scraps of old cloth to cope each month. Not only are these makeshift solutions ineffective, but they can harm girls’ health, increasing infection risks and emotional distress. This is a reality threatening girls' education and future.
But together, we can change this.
With your support, we will provide two manual sewing machines and materials to create reusable sanitary pads - empowering local women to produce vital menstrual hygiene products where they are needed most. Additionally, we will build eco-friendly changing rooms and toilets at Njenga Primary and Secondary schools, providing safe, private spaces for girls to manage their hygiene with dignity.
Key elements of the project include:
Sustainable infrastructure: The new changing rooms and toilets will be constructed using eco-friendly bricks, reducing environmental impact by avoiding tree-cutting and lowering the project’s carbon footprint compared to conventional bricks.
Community ownership: The schools will own these facilities and the education guidelines, ensuring their continued use and sustainability. The school administration, alongside trained PTA and Mothers Group members, will maintain the facilities and the sewing machines.
Skills and training: Twenty members of the Parent Teacher Association and Mothers Group will be trained by skilled mentors to produce reusable pads, empowering the community with vital skills and income opportunities.
Waste reduction: All leftover materials will be reused creatively — fabric scraps will become chalkboard dusters, and spare building materials will be used for repairs, maximising sustainability.
Environmental education: Community engagement sessions will promote sustainable practices and environmental management to support the project during and beyond its implementation.
This project not only helps girls manage menstruation safely, preventing missed school days, but also promotes dignity, empowerment, environmental care, and long-term sustainability.
Your donation is an investment in girls’ futures, education, and wellbeing. Please pledge to help sew a brighter, healthier future for girls in Malawi.
About Think Malawi
Think Malawi is a registered UK charity (no. 1141352). We are run by volunteers, enabling us to ensure that all money pledged to this campaign (once card and Crowdfunder platform fees are paid) goes direct towards the costs of the project in Malawi. We have successfully implemented several similar projects, helping thousands of girls. Here are some of the results of these projects:
"Girls’ enrolment numbers increased by 31% compared to enrolment numbers before the project”
- Result from a past menstrual Hygiene Management project, funded by Think Malawi and implemented by Umodzi Youth Organisation”
“At Chitsime School we interacted with the chair of the mothers group… she said the washroom is helping the girls of this school because now it is rare in their area to find a girl absent or coming back home when menstruating to change their sanitary materials.”
- Report from project funded by Think Malawi and implemented by African Vision
Our project partners in Malawi
If funding can be completed, the project will be carried out by Green Vision Environmental Organisation (GREVEO), a registered trust in Malawi. Think Malawi will provide oversight and is already working closely with them.
GREVEO have strong links with the local community, which enabled them to work with the community to identify this challenge as well as to design the solution. There is also strong ownership of the project among the local community, who will provide some of the construction materials required as well as the mothers who will volunteer their time.
If we exceed our fundraising target of £4,000, then additional funds will go towards the other menstrual hygiene management projects which we are currently fundraising for. If all of our menstrual hygiene management projects are fully funded then, subject to the approval of our trustees, extra funds raised may go towards other education projects in Malawi which we fund.
This project successfully funded on 11th October 2025