The Ujasiri x Emanate Foundation Uganda collaboration strives to make a meaningful impact on gender equality within the region. The initiative aims to empower women and promote inclusivity through various programs and projects.
The Ujasiri Kit will be a collection of reusable sanitary pads, a pocket calendar, and a simple educative guide on menstrual periods. The total number of pads in the kit will be 5 to 7 to enable the girls have pads to change into as the washed ones dry. They will be made using cotton, which is the most breathable and friendly material. The Kit will also contain a pocket calendar. This will be a tiny and simple calendar with instructions at the front on how to calculate a period cycle, track the dates and estimate when the next period is due. This allows the girls to keep record of their estimated period dates and be better prepared for the flow, reducing instance of being caught off guard also feel the need to add in the extra detail of education. This is where the educative guide comes in. This will be a pocket friendly booklet, not more than 10 pages, with simple but demonstrative illustrations on how to use the pads, how to keep them clean, how to recognise common signs and symptoms of an incoming period such as period pimples, back pains or vaginal discharge changes, how to relieve period discomfort, etc. We will conduct a continuous fundraising campaign at the University and several other institutions in Uganda, set up an online donating site for the same cause and use these funds to cater for the necessary production materials and labour. For the easily accessible areas, we shall conduct monthly visits to schools in rural areas during which we shall distribute the kits and spend time talking to these young girls, encouraging and inspiring them. For the inaccessible areas, we shall get into contact with the school representatives and find a way to deliver the kits for distribution, ensuring that we obtain feedback and proof of delivery to the girls.
The Emanate Foundation Uganda Project on the other hand was a social group that is in response to the dire disregard of the rights and women in the community and world at large. The foundations’ major goal is advocacy for gender equality, providing a safe space for girls and women to share social life experiences and educate each of them about their rights embedded in the law.
The group was to meet in three phases; the first phase being a write to inspire where students were to do a short story, poem, play about their experiences of gender-based inequalities or human rights violations. The second programme was to be a meet and inspire that I expected to be an interactive discussion with students about how to deal with or cope with gender-based segregation and why it is persistent in our community. Then lastly an outreach to the community with specific focus to areas around Makerere to educate the girls and women about the need to have their rights and those of their male counterparts equal.