Pilot Project Shows How Pads Can Keep Girls in School in Zimbabwe

The pilot project reduced the school dropout rate for adolescent girls after the Covid-19 pandemic, through complementary social protection and Water and Sanitary Health (WASH) interventions.

Piloting Social Protection and WASH interventions helped to keep adolescent girls in school in Zimbabwe project. The project began in December 2021 and ended in September 2022. The project sought to reduce the school dropout rate among adolescent girls resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, by initiating complementary social protection and WASH interventions in Buhera, a district in eastern Zimbabwe's Manicaland province.

Buhera is one of the poorest and most water-scarce districts in Zimbabwe, and thus easily affected by any increase in household poverty. The pandemic had added to the layered vulnerability of girls living in poverty there, given gender dynamics and the disproportionate impact it had on women and girls. 

Income-generating activity grants gave adult beneficiaries the chance to start businesses in livestock, poultry, or vegetable farming.

The pilot provided all 1,007 girls with menstrual hygiene kits for 12 months. The sensitization and awareness-raising sessions were organized at 48 schools to encourage behavior change in menstrual management and support the girl child.

InFocus

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