Megan White Mukuria on making it
Am I normal? Am I special? Am I going to make it? These are questions teenagers struggle with around the globe. And for vulnerable girls in Kenya, the answer to the last question - if Social Innovation Fellow Megan White Mukuria has anything to do with it - is yes. Making it means making sure those girls receive an education. So White wondered, "If educating girls is the number one things we can do, what's the simplest thing I can do to change the world and keep more girls in school?"
On the heels of PopTech's recent Climate Lab in Nairobi, Kenya in which we looked at the impact of climate change on girls and women, White's concerns about making it and the question she set forth are particularly relevant. When White learned that over 860,000 girls in Kenya wind up staying home and missing a month and a half of school each year because they can't afford sanitary pads during menstruation, the simple solution became clear: help provide affordable pads and health education to these young women. ZanaAfrica, the organization she founded, gives girls the freedom and self-confidence to stay in school and provides them with an opportunity to connect online with a community of like-minded young women. The results of ZanaAfrica's work with 800 young women in the Kibera slums in Kenya has positively changed the dynamic within classrooms, families, and communities, and with plans to scale this project, we have yet to see the full potential this program will have on the lives of young women.
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