ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2025
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. This year, 60,000+ young leaders applied to join the Class of 2025 on 7,000+ campuses across 170 nations. 290+ campuses worldwide (less than 5%) were selected to host the 4,500+ Millennium Fellows.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT MUNIRATU MUNA IDDRISU, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
African Leadership University Rwanda | Kigali, Rwanda | Advancing SDG 5, SDG 3 & UNAI 9
" I'm excited to be a Millennium Fellow because it amplifies my mission to break the silence around menstruation, empower girls with knowledge, and ensure no one misses opportunities simply because they lack access to menstrual health resources. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Menstrual Empowerment Initiative
A girl who was unable to afford pad during her menstrual flow she use cloth which wasn't able to contain the flow all efforts to get help from her friends and family but no one could help a male friend proposed love to her which she declined but she had no choice than to reach out to him for help he agreed to help her on a condition that she should offer him sex after her flow. She accepted it out of frustration, in less than two weeks the guy left the community only for the girl to realize she has picked a seed after they encounter. She left the community to another place because of shame and embarrassment. Every year over 10,700 girls get pregnant in Ghana and 20% of girls go back to school and 36.6% of girls are given to men for marriage. I am a young girl who wants to start an initiative where we can provide sanitary pads to young girls training them on how to manage their menstrual hygiene. We will also give them menstrual cup and reusable pads to help them manage their period without going through financial burden.
About the Millennium Fellow
Muniratu Muna Iddrisu
Changemaker | Girls' Empowerment Advocate | Founder, Menstrual Empowerment Initiative
My name is Muniratu Muna Iddrisu a committed community activist, youth mentor, and changemaker working to create a world where equity, dignity, and opportunity are not privileges but rights for everyone. I'm a student at the African leadership University in Rwanda, Studying entrepreneurial Leadership. Being a young girl who is passionate about empowering females, I have been engaging with high school girls for many years to empower them and foster their leadership skills by coaching them in the ownership of their voices, seeking out leadership opportunities, and transcendence of the fear of judgment or limitation by society. I feel that any girl can lead — she simply must be believed in, inspired, and given opportunity.
My practice style is personal and mission-driven. I individually advocate for teen mothers to be re-enrolled in school with the belief that motherhood will not be the termination of a girl's education. Using narrative, community mobilization, and policy discourse, I dismantle stigma and advocate for open systems to welcome these teen mothers back to the classroom.
I am also the founder of the Menstrual Empowerment Initiative, a non-profit organization working to eradicate period poverty. Our mission is simple to offer all girls and young women, regardless of their socioeconomic status, access to affordable and sustainable menstrual products and information to navigate her period with dignity. We work in underserved communities to offer menstrual kits, menstrual health education, and de-stigmatizing and normalizing conversation about menstruation.
This year, I was privileged to be selected for Millennium Fellowship class of 2025.
Areas of Focus
Girls' Leadership and Confidence Building
Menstrual Health Education and Access
Education for Teenage Mothers
Community-led Change and Inclusion
Vision
In order to construct enabled, educated, and equitable communities where adolescent girls are able to grow up free of fear, menstruation is normalized, and no girl is left behind based on her biology or her history.
