This is Harshna Mistry, a 26 year old project manager working in clinical research for GlaxoSmithKline in the UK. She came to Kenya in July 2013 on a 6 month PULSE assignment working with the Ogra Foundation to help improve absenteeism in primary school children.
Ogra currently run a Healthstart programme in 2 rural schools in Kisumu County, Kenya providing children with one hot meal per day and relevant 'Life Skills' education. Looking at their annual report she noticed there was an intention to provide sanitary towels to girls together with education and support. To date this had been impossible to deliver due to lack of resource and funding for the towels. This inspired her to develop the MARS Project, a sustainable project to address the provision of sanitary towels together with the necessary education and support to keep girls in school!
About us...
This is the Healthstart Team at Ogra. From left to right we have David Amonje, Monitoring and Evalauation Officer, Fredah Ajowi, Senior Project Officer, George Ariya, Programme Manager and Effie Akinyi, Placement Student. The team's primary objective is to improve the education and nutrition of primary school children in the Rabuor and Ombeyi communitites. The Healthstart project is a pilot, if it proves to be effective the hope is that the government will adopt the programme structure for roll out in other schools around Kenya. The team have been instrumental in the initiation and delivery of the MARS Project.
The teachers at Rabuor Primary School- From left to right we have Madame Celin, Madame Helen, Madame Jackie, Madame Sarah and Madame Pauline. These teachers have been absolutely fantastic. Pauline is the Healthstart coordinator and Helen is one of the Deputy Headteachers. As a group these teachers have been supportive and engaged in ensuring the girls understand the project and in encouraging them to make the 6 towels they need. Their committment to the project has been vital, once Harshna returns to the UK it will be their responsibility to own the project and run it year after year with the help of the team at Ogra.
Ombeyi Primary School- This is Madame Leah. She is the Healthstart coordinator at Ombeyi Primary School. This school is much smaller than Rabuor so has less staff. She has been the main source of support and engagement in Ombeyi when running the project and will be the one facilitating future workshops with the girls once Harshna leaves.