VPM has started a project; The Vulnerable Women Pads project – to reach out to poor and vulnerable girls and women in Korogocho with sanitary pads who cannot afford to buy them because of the effects of COVID 19. Businesses were closed down leaving the families with no income at all to the point those mothers and girls cannot afford to buy pads every month. VPM seeks to improve the dignity of socially vulnerable and economically underprivileged girls and women besides empowering them with skills. When we closed our school sessions, we discovered needy ladies came to our office looking for both food and sanitary pads openly. These ladies used to sell whatever for a little profit on Korogocho streets to make a living and buy all necessities including food and pads, but COVID 19 ruined all sorts of income and their businesses leaving them completely hopeless.

Some of the vulnerable girls and women confided in our staff that they have to sleep with motor cycle riders (commonly known as bodaboda) in order to get some money to buy sanitary pads, secretly known as “sex for pads”. VPM had to pray and seek God’s guidance and later sought to start this project (The vulnerable women pads project) to reach out to these vulnerable women and girls with counseling, seminars and a few pads each month.

Every girl deserves control over her future but many miss school due to inability to manage menstruation. As VPM we have been distributing pads to vulnerable girls and women in Korogocho