Women Empowerment for Equitable Development (Weed) Project
The WEED project got its inspiration after a community sampling and mapping to investigate reasons why young girls were not consistent in going to school at Ungwan Kudu community, Kaduna state. Considering the extreme poverty levels that existed in many of such communities where farming is the major source of income, the COVID-19 pandemic had further increased their hardship. This has created a spike in menstrual poverty that has each month affected girl’s attendance in school.

Empowering women and girls with livelihood skills is key towards achieving financial freedom to support their family, educational needs and health rights. A lot has been said and done to promote “Free Pads for Girls” through campaigns and advocacies, but all ended in vain with no sustainable solution.

LEGASI is currently running the WEED project in Kaduna North - Kaduna State. The aim of the program is to educate and build the capacity of girls and women on menstrual hygiene management, to promote healthy and safe menstrual periods. Different stages of sensitization and advocacy visits were conducted to engage the community leaders in the selection of target participants who where trained to promote the values of the WEED project whilst transferring the skills to others.

In our efforts to reduce period poverty among women and girls in grass-root communities, we have purchased ten (10) sewing machines, and sewing kits of 20 bundles of cotton materials, towels and napkins to empower women and girls with skills on how to make reusable cloth sanitary pads.

Our mission is to improve the livelihood of women and build financial independence through education and adopted entrepreneurial skills. This will in turn also contribute in reducing land pollution caused by synthetic pads deposits. This project came to reality with huge support from World Connect US through this phase one project implementation.