Educating Girls Changes Everything.

Huru was founded in 2008 with a vision for a world where no girl is limited by her period.

In Kenya, 65 percent of women cannot afford menstrual pads. Three of every four girls we work with report missing at least three days of school every single month.

Without access to or the means to purchase menstrual protection, girls risk leaking through their school uniforms. When their peers are misinformed about menstruation, they shame girls for soiling their uniforms. Embarrassment is a powerful deterrent that continues to keep girls from the classroom.

Without pads, girls resort to using unhygienic materials - like leaves, torn pieces of mattress, or old rags - or engaging in risky behaviors like transactional sex to acquire funds for food, rent, menstrual pads and other essentials.

At Huru, we invest in a girl’s education through reusable menstrual pads. Each pad is a tool that she can use to broker access to a continuous education. The pads also act as a point of entry for sexual and reproductive health information that is equally vital to her personal freedom.

Our goal is not only to get girls to the classroom, but to keep them there. This requires both a high-quality pad and comprehensive health education for girls and their entire communities on menstruation, sexual and reproductive health and life skills. Our hope is for girls to actively participate, lead and excel in school and beyond and to feel supported by their communities while doing so.

It isn’t original to say that investing in girls’ education would have local, national and global effects. When the percentage of women with a secondary education increases by 1 percent, the annual per capita economic growth increases by 0.3 percent. Just one additional year in secondary school increases a girl’s lifetime earnings by as much as 20 percent.

Girls who are educated are more likely to delay their sexual debut, marry later, and have fewer children. If they choose to have a family, girls who are educated are more likely to ensure their children remain in school - creating a new cycle entirely.

We know that girls can change the world.

Thank you for being a part of our story.

With gratitude,