My name is Victoria and I'm a project manager in the Zurich office. I joined the company in 2019 after my PhD at the University Hospital of Zurich where I was working with HIV patients. Although I've been working in consulting for 5 years, my passion for human health and societal matters has never left me. That's why, when my colleagues Lisa and Johannes asked me to join Big Girls Foundation in 2023 to help with a new women's health project, it was an obvious choice.

In March 2024, I had the opportunity to focus solely on this project by going on a Social Fellowship for 3 months with the goal of helping young girls and women in the Kilimanjaro-Amboseli-Tsavo region of Kenya learn more about their own menstrual cycles and normalize speaking about their periods.

In this rural region of Kenya, female students have many challenges when it comes to education. From long and dangerous journeys on foot to reach their schools, to limited financial options to pay school fees, getting an education as a female can be tough. However, one of the biggest challenges many girls here face is something that is part of normal life for females everywhere – menstruation.

Stigma and shame surrounding menstruation is rife in Kenya, with only 12% of girls being comfortable with receiving information about the topic from their mothers, and only 50% willing to openly discuss menstruation. This means girls are often unprepared and uninformed when they start bleeding and do not know what is healthy or normal.

With the help of the amazing Young Jewels Foundation, a Nairobi-based volunteer organization, we developed an interactive, fun (and, importantly, Swahili) curriculum to teach females aged 11-20 about their menstrual health. Having divided the Kilimanjaro-Amboseli-Tsavo region into 9 zones, we carried out full-day training in each zone, after which each young woman was given a snack and provided with 3-months' worth of sanitary products. By the end of our program, we'd been able to reach 1299 young females from 190 different schools and empower them to go into their communities and schools to spread the teachings further to the girls who could not attend. Although the participants were shy at first, by the end of their training day they had opened up and were singing empowering songs.

This is just the first step in Big Girls Foundation's journey to providing menstrual health management in the area. We have identified a partner within Kaijado county who would be willing to provide biodegradable menstrual pads at production cost, and we are looking to employ someone on-site who can continue the teaching program by visiting schools in the area each day. Although my Social Fellowship has ended, this is something I care about deeply and will continue to support. If you would like to learn more about other Big Girls Foundation projects or contribute to this program, you can visit the website ( https://biggirlsfoundation.org/donations ) and consider donating, because even a small donation can make a big difference.