GABBIE ADUT: A JOURNEY TO END MENSTRUAL POVERTY

Sanding at 5’8, her smile, paving a way to her white teeth, a gap waving at you, leaves you believing that she is charming. She is all ghetto. Talking sheng like she smuggled it out of Eastlands. Her sense of humour competes with Tiffany Hadish’s. Her slender body is that of a Victoria secret model.


On a decent day, Gabbie Adut was on her way to Rowalan Camp. Around 42 area n Kibera she met a beautiful girl. The young girl had soiled her skirt. She was in tears. Her mother had asked her, “My daughter, do you need food or pads?” And when she faced Gabbie, she was all tears. It broke her to see that a natural need would place an innocent girl in such a situation. And all though she couldn’t do anything for her, she gave her Kshs. 200 and left.


She did not know that was a turning point in her life. She could not ignore the plights of “destitute and vulnerable “girls who had either lost their parents or struck by poverty and thus choose basic needs such as food, over period products.
That same day, 19 February, 2017, HerFlowMyConcern (HFMC) was founded. Its role was to curb to curb serial poverty in slums and rural areas. This was however after a thorough research that revealed that, many girls would drop out of school or miss classes after realizing they were left behind in syllabus coverage .Her break down showed that if a pupil missed. A good number of the girls, she tells me, still consider topics surrounding menstruation a taboo.

Moreover, in her own estimates, if a girl missed 3 days a month, with each day having seven lessons, then the she misses approximately 252 lessons in one year.
Back to the drawing board, she realized she needed a team and funding. Her two cousins and two friends from school volunteered to join her. This team is behind many journeys two rural areas and life changing impacts.


Thus, a plan was devised to feed the project. They thought of many ideas but none beat t-shirt printing.


It is from this business that they fund the project. Furthermore, they receive, occasionally, between 1-6 pads from friends that they supplement with what they get from selling branded t-shirts. They also receive help from well-wishers. “We receive donations (sanitary towels, panties or cash-that we use to buy sanitary towels) and issue to our sisters/daughters or fellow woman who cannot access them.”


When she is not distributing pads, she will be holding conversations on holistic and healthy menstrual practices. Together with her ‘bros’ they teach girls and boys the stigmatization that comes with menstruation. For hers is a dream to see every woman succeeding despite and not being stopped by a biological process.” I want all girls and women to be able to discover their full potential without being held back by a natural need.”


Two significant journeys to the rural areas, she remembers, were faced with tough challenges. Her trip to Samburu was met with girls who were so afraid to talk about their periods, for they still believed it was a taboo. It hit her so hard that not only were they lacking sanitary products, but also there was a need for proper awareness on the whole issue of menstruation.


In Narok, she tells me, the pads were not enough. She had budgeted to distribute sanitary towels to at least 300 girls, but she was met by 1000 plus of them, something that shocker her. When such challenges face her, she make calls to friends and family, who help her raise the remaining money, sometimes even the fare they had contributed towards helping the girls.

Miss Gabbie is a student at Technical University of Kenya as well as a professional model.

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