The Smile Bank Club is a gender mainstreaming programme within Project Elimu that targets both boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 22, focusing on; Ending period poverty, Gender-based violence, Teenage pregnancy and creating entrepreneurial capacity of the young woman.
The programme is designed to address challenges around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) needs of school-going adolescent girls in the informal settlements of Nairobi. The beneficiaries engage in social/community work in their schools/communities with supervision from designated leads (mostly teachers) that then award them points for each task. Each girl has to accumulate 60 or more points every month which they use in exchange for sanitary towels. In addition, the project incorporates sensitization sessions on menstrual hygiene and other key life skills lessons important for the girls.
Through training and building the capacity of young people on sexual and reproductive health, sanitary towel distribution and lobbying. We aim to create a local sanitary towel production factory by the year 2023.
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The developmental themes that we focus on include: Education, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Diversity. Project Elimu uses a creative and innovative art-based ballet dance approach to address and communicate its developmental messages, a medium that attracts many young people in Kibera.