U.S COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS
  • LANGUAGE OPTIONS


USCRI Provides Half a Million Sanitary Pads to Kenyan Refugee Camps

January 26, 2024

ARLINGTON, VA – This week, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) staff delivered over half a million sanitary pads to women and girls in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya. Tens of thousands of women and girls in the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps live with little to no access to menstrual hygiene products. This impacts every part of their lives, from their health to their access to education. During a visit in September 2023, USCRI noticed this need and decided to take action to help. USCRI raised over $22,000, providing over half a million pads – enough to support nearly 5,000 girls for one year.

 

“During our visit to Kakuma and Dabaab last year, we were made aware that a lack of access to menstrual hygiene items was causing girls and young women to miss school or become ill, among other issues,” said AnnaMarie Bena, USCRI Senior Vice President. “USCRI is grateful for the generous donors who made this delivery possible and hope it makes things a little easier for the girls and young women in the camps.”

 

During these visits, education actors in both camps stressed the serious impact menstruation has on girls’ enrollment in school. Poor toilet facilities cause a lack of privacy for girls at school during menstruation as well as health risks. There is a shortage of menstrual hygiene materials at the camps, such as sanitary pads and soap. Girls often resort to using and reusing unsanitary pieces of cloth due to a lack of sanitary pads, causing infection and other health risks. These factors, coupled with ongoing stigma and discrimination within the community around menstruation, forced girls to miss weeks of school at a time or to drop out altogether.

 

 

USCRI is in the process of opening an office in Nairobi, Kenya, with plans to provide services to urban refugee populations and refugee children.

 

If you would like to help us continue to support the futures of displaced people, please donate at Refugees.org/keepgirlsdreaming

 

Media Contact: [email protected]

 

ABOUT U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), established in 1911, is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit international organization dedicated to addressing the needs and rights of refugees, unaccompanied migrating children, trafficking survivors, and other immigrants in all 50 states, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, and Mexico. USCRI advocates for the rights of refugees and immigrants both nationally and globally, helping to drive humanitarian policies, practices, and law


Related Posts

USCRI Urges Continued Commitment to...

On September 30, President Biden set the refugee admissions ceiling at 125,000 for the coming fiscal year. The Fiscal Year...

READ FULL STORY

USCRI Denounces the Administration’s Recommitment...

On September 30, President Biden issued an Amended Proclamation to the June Presidential Proclamation that temporarily suspended and limited the...

READ FULL STORY

USCRI Condemns Xenophobic Attacks Against...

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is alarmed by the recent escalation in xenophobic and racist narratives about...

READ FULL STORY