connie lewin

Scaling Mountains to Solve An Overlooked Issue

in Blog  by connie lewin
Eva Johnston Kilimanjaro Climb with go pads July 2015 .jpg

#climbforSHE team member Eva Johnston on Mt. Kilimanjaro with a pack of go! pads.

Our #climbforSHE team is back from scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro and raised $51,615 dollars! Read about her life-changing experience:

Eva, one of our esteemed SHE climbers recounts her experience climbing Mount Kilimanjaro:

My attempt to sum our trip up…magical to the point of being miraculous! SENE was an incredible expedition company, our SHE climbing team consisted of rock star climbers and every single woman on the trip was and continues to be an inspiration to me!  Our circumstances couldn’t have worked out any better. The weather was as close to perfect as one could hope for. Additionally, noting that our ages ranged from 17 to 71, some with zero climbing or camping skills (me and my daughter included), others with zero training we ALL reached the summit safely and with smiles on our faces! I feel so lucky and blessed to have been a part of this group of women.

To Bella—our brilliant, compassionate, motivated climb leader and the other equally inspiring young climbers, Mia, Beatrice and Chloë, you all give me such hope for the future and I want to thank you for being such positive role models for my daughter while we climbed the mountain. To Sara, Joanne, Connie and Gayle—I was truly lucky to be up there breathing the same air as you ladies!  I am in awe of your strength, motivation, and passion for SHE, for helping other women across our planet and your commitment to leaving this planet better than we found it.

As anticipated, I am feeling a post-climb, post-adrenaline rush sadness acknowledging that this amazing experience has come to an end. I’m certain I will be dreaming of the pure, cold air I was breathing on Mount Kilimanjaro, the stars that looked like I could reach out and touch, the sound of our awesome guides waking us up to check vitals each morning and the hot cup of coffee I knew was on its way from our always smiling team of SENE porters and the views from my tent every morning. As amazing as pictures are, they simply cannot capture the magic of the moment that is experienced and taken in by the human eye!

Celebrating Menstrual Hygiene Day

in Blog  by connie lewin

 

SHE celebrated the second annual Menstrual Hygiene Day, founded by WASH United, nationwide in Rwanda. An estimated 2.5 million people were buzzing with new menstrual health information during our live Q&A on Radio Rwanda. We also led local celebrations with 703 boys and girls from The Akilah Institute for Women, Riviera School, and the Rukara sector. They celebrated Menstrual Hygiene Day with skits, awareness sessions, and a soccer match!

And the world is taking notice of Menstrual Hygiene Day too! Forbes and Ashoka named us 1 of 5 Amazing Companies in Menstrual Hygiene. NPR acknowledged our pioneering approach of using business solutions to keep girls in school and women working.

Our friends at The Akilah Institute of Women gave some encouraging messages to the younger girls of Rwanda:

 

Moms Know Best

in Blog  by connie lewin

This year, we celebrated Mother’s Day at our Ngoma production site by inviting our team’s children to tour the facility and enjoy in some special treats. We asked their children what they most appreciate about their mothers, and their responses (and photos) are too charming not to share!

Barbara, age 4

Barbara, age 4

“I like my mother because she buys me puppets and a bicycle.”

Igor, age 8

Igor, age 8

“I am proud of my foster mother (Aunty) because she continuously helps me to improve my class scores and because of her efforts this term I was ranked the third of my class.”

Bella, age 6

Bella, age 6

"I am proud of my mother and my family because they respect me."

Our mothers had their turn too to share what is most meaningful to them about working at SHE.

Nadine and her daughter Barbara, age 4

Nadine and her daughter Barbara, age 4

"I am inspired to go to work everyday because I am producing something helpful for girls and women."

Marie Louise Umulisa with her children

Marie Louise Umulisa with her children

" I didn’t feel comfortable to talk about menstruation and pads, but now that I produce them I feel comfortable and confident to talk about both menstruation and using pads."

Sandrine and her children

Sandrine and her children

"The most meaningful part of my work is that I proudly use the product that I have produced myself!"

Thanks to our working moms are doing to make a lasting impact for their children and for their communities! Happy Mother’s Day!

Sarah Boeckmann, our M&E consultant (second from left) learns more about the menstrual hygiene management challenges for girls from the headmistress at the GS Giyaka school.

By the Numbers: Our M&E Strategy

in Blog  by connie lewin

Guest post by Sarah Boeckmann, our M&E Consultant

I have been SHE’s Monitoring and Evaluation consultant for about 2 years. That means I have helped the team develop a logical framework for SHE’s education and advocacy work. I also developed tools to help them collect data that, in the long term, will help SHE understand the impact of its work on women and girls in Rwanda. Recently I had the chance to go to Rwanda to work with the team there to test some data collection tools that are being used to collect data from girls in 10 rural, primary schools.

SHE is at a very exciting moment right now because menstrual hygiene management (MHM) clubs are starting this term in 10 schools in Kayonza. The clubs are run by teachers trained by Nadia Hitmana, SHE’s Health and Hygiene Manager, to teach an MHM curriculum to students. Now that these clubs are about to kick off, and pads will be reaching these same schools, it is important for SHE to collect baseline data on the students in these clubs to understand the effect the training has on them.

SHE is interested both in how the training affects their knowledge of menstruation and healthy menstrual hygiene practices, but also if and how the training affects their behavior around menstruation. This includes everything from their use and disposal of pads, to how confident they feel during their period, to how often they are absent from school because of their period.

Data like this is tricky and complex to gather accurately and a good way to try to get the best data possible is to use a combination of quantitative (like surveys) and qualitative (like focus groups) data collection tools. It is hard to get these tools right without testing them in the setting where they are meant to be used.

While I was in Rwanda we spent a day in one of the schools testing the various tools with a classroom of girls who volunteered.  These are the kinds of things that we were looking for:

  • Were their questions that the girls didn’t understand?
  • Were we missing any possible answer choices on multiple choice questions?
  • How long did it take to complete a survey?

We also asked the students what they thought of the tools and how they were administered. Sometimes asking those kinds of open-ended questions point out problems you never would have considered.

Testing the tools in a real life setting always makes glaringly obvious issues you never would have considered. You might find out the tool you thought would take 30 minutes takes 2 hours, or that a question you thought was great makes absolutely no sense.

As for us, we had decided that to test the students’ knowledge of menstruation and MHM we would have them close their eyes and raise their hands yes or no/true or false in respond to a question. We thought this would solve the problem of having students of different ages and literacy levels taking one test. We also wanted to make the data collection process more fun for the students and not start the club off with formal test that might make the club seem boring or scary. What we hadn’t considered was that there would be so many kids in a small classroom that they could barely raise a hand and could definitely feel what the kids on either side of them were doing.

While piloting data collection tools highlight problems, it also makes solutions obvious as well. The teacher who was with us pointed out that afterschool clubs are often held outside and that if the students were outside they could be more spread out, solving the problem. Piloting the tools and seeing what issues arise helped us to make the changes needed to finalize the tools.

Nadia and Flora are collecting lots of great baseline data from more than 200 girls right now before they receive pads or start learning about MHM. Then we will collect data from a similar number of girls after they spend a term learning about MHM from SHE-Trained Teachers and see what changes or doesn’t change and why.

It is especially important for SHE to get this kind of rich, detailed information from the girls in these 10 schools so that the team can learn and make changes based on lessons learned as it scales-up to providing pads and teacher training throughout Rwanda.

NYU Women’s Soccer Embarks on a “Padded” Project with SHE

in Blog  by connie lewin

Guest post by Sophie Frank, a freshman at New York University and goalkeeper on the Varsity Soccer Team

When you are on a team with thirty other females, there is no way to evade the topic of PERIODS. Menstrual cycles fall in and hormones are rampant. It was not until NYU Women’s Soccer worked with Sustainable Health Enterprises, however, that we were exposed to a new perspective on the dreaded topic of menstruation. We gathered in the conference room at Coles Sports Center on campus and listened to SHE founder, Elizabeth Scharpf and SHE strategy director, Connie Lewin, explain the gaping need for women in Rwanda to have better access to and education about menstruation and menstruation resources. Elizabeth and Connie inspired us with their description of the sustainable business SHE has innovated: creating jobs, opening doors, and providing necessary health resources to passionate and intelligent women in Rwanda. We knew we had to do more.

As busy college students, we wanted to make sure that we were able to do something meaningful, and would serve SHE directly. We went to the drawing board, and in doing so, we learned a lot about how we can wield our common femininity to both empathize with and be empowered by the female population that SHE28 targets. After doing research and learning more about SHE28, we identified that we would make the biggest difference by raising awareness and fundraising. Putting our creative energies to work, we baked tasty treats and colored eye catching posters. We then hosted a bake sale at the same sports center where we were first inspired by the SHE28 mission. Although we did not raise enough to propel SHE28 into a future of easy investing, we brought this topic–of women who lack proper materials for menstruation–to the attention of our peers. Cookies for a cause. NYU women’s soccer is grateful to have had the opportunity to learn more about such a great entrepreneurial pursuit and important cause. We hope to have made a difference with our team’s #smallthing and we hope to do more work with SHE28 in the future.

 

Meet the SHE Team: Yvonne Krywyj

in Blog  by connie lewin

Hometown: Detroit

What is your role and what are some of your current projects?  I am the head of business operations for Rwanda, so I oversee everything that goes on here. Right now, I’m working on updating our team’s strategic plans and working to get our pads approved by the Rwanda Bureau of Standards, as well as engaging partners for future collaborations. 

What might (someone) be surprised to know about you? I can come up with haikus on command, about any topic. For example, here’s one for SHE:

This one’s for the girls: 

Period’s no cause for shame. 

Let’s break the taboo.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Or your favorite snack?

I’m not a big dessert person, but I can’t resist Ben & Jerry’s Triple Caramel Chunk, which I think has a new name now. My favorite snack, though, is wasabi peas. Or wasabi peanuts. Or really anything coated in wasabi.

What was the last song you just listened to?

Embrace, by Goldroom

Why did you join SHE?

I joined SHE because it offers a market-based approach to a social problem, because it creates jobs and increases income for women all along the value chain, because it benefits women and girls, and because I couldn’t ask for a better team of people to work with.

What do you wish other people knew about SHE?

I wish other people knew that SHE is not a traditional charity but, rather, is investing in people and growing the economy here in Rwanda while breaking the taboos around menstruation and making it easier for women and girls to go about their normal daily lives while on their periods. In the long-term, operating as a business is a much more sustainable approach than relying on donations forever.

Flora leading teachers training session Nov 2014

Meet the SHE Team: Flora Ufitinema

in Blog  by connie lewin

What is your role and what are some of your current projects?

As the Marketing and Research Associate, I serve as the brand advocate of go!, and work closely with the team to increase brand awareness, drive sales, and ultimately generate new business leads. I also provide research and analysis support to our health education and awareness program.

What might someone be surprised to know about you?

People don’t believe that I can tell good jokes, but I always surprise them when I speak out and make people laugh. I seem more as an introvert, but in reality, I am both an introvert and extrovert.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Or your favorite snack?

Chocolate Ice Cream

What was the last song you just listened to?

“Create In Me A Clean Heart” by Donnie McClurkin

Why did you join SHE?

I joined SHE so I can be part of a team that inspires confidence in girls everyday of the month, and provides sustainable solutions to Rwandan young girls using our country’s resources.

What do you wish other people knew about SHE?

People should know that SHE enables girls to find freedom and dignity, promotes a positive outlook on menstruation and boosts girls’ confidence during a period of insecurity.

#climbforSHE Bella Wiener takes top honors

in Blog  by connie lewin

#climbforSHE campaign founder Bella Wiener was recently acknowledged as a young game changer at the recent MUSE Women’s Conference in Bend, OR. Bella shared the stage at the 3-day conference with Myrlie Evers-Williams, Daphne Zuniga, and other female catalysts for change. The following week, Bella won the Young Hero Award by the Bend Chamber of Commerce’s Women of the Year Awards. Bella’s adventurous spirit serves as an inspiration to many!

Health and Hygiene Manager Nadia Hitimana kicked off our initiative to train primary school teachers about menstrual health and hygiene management with 50 teachers from the Eastern District of Rwanda.

Teaching the ABCs about Menstrual Hygiene

in Blog  by connie lewin

Guest post by Nadia Hitimana, Health and Hygiene Manager, Rwanda

Our main goal of our teacher’s training initiative is to provide accurate information about menstrual hygiene management, or MHM. Education has always been our first step in breaking the silence and taboos about menstruation. We’re starting with teachers, whom will then train other staff members and key student leaders. This multiplier effect will then spread into the communities.

We began with a group of 50 teachers in November, and our objectives were (1) to increase teachers’ knowledge and skills about MHM; and (2) to equip teachers to train our MHM curriculum with their students.

Teachers deeply appreciated our training program. Our curriculum covered the gamut of health knowledge and related topics. The teachers were receptive, yet prevailing myths and taboos still came up as points of contention. I couldn’t believe it when one teacher still was not convinced that some women should be farming when menstruating.

Another teacher, however, expressed a new sense of admiration for his wife after learning about the menstrual cycle. “I am ashamed for blaming her about not being able to control the number of pregnancies she has had. I can’t imagine how confusing and stressful it must be for her and other women who are not informed.”

Our work with the 50 teachers continues throughout this year. We will continue to work with these teachers throughout 2015 so they can be effective MHM education trainers at their schools.

Stay tuned as we share more about our work with teachers this year!

SHE’s Woman Crush Wednesday’s Picks

in Blog  by connie lewin

In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day,  we asked members of our SHE community for their “woman crush” – a woman who inspires them professionally and/or personally. We will post these “Woman Crushes” each Wednesday in March.

Dany Karemera, Production Manager

 

909dJeannette-Kagame

First Lady of Rwanda Jeannette Kagame

My woman crush is Jeanette Kagame, the First Lady of Rwanda. As the First Lady, she has made it her top priority that girls and women are highly regarded by society. She started girls’ empowerment projects, mostly in education. She always encourages girls to become future leaders of our country. For example, now more than 60% of the Rwandan parliament are women, and First Lady Kagame did a lot to make this happen.”

CeCe Camacho, Chief Operating Officer, Global

My abuela (grandmother) married at 14 and raised five children who flourished into wonderful people.  She immigrated with her family from Mexico and worked on the railroad, in the canary as well as a farm laborer. She was the matriarch of her clan who cared deeply for her family and community by sharing crates of fruits and vegetables as well as her famous tortillas. She was an outspoken and tender woman with arms of steel.  

Photo on 3-19-15 at 1.15 PM