GAFFER Health is facilitating an exciting new project on behalf of a pair of Swedish Health Professionals who have been working in Kenya! Washable sanitary towels which will help the young ladies in the area to feel comfortable and prevent their cycles from interrupting their education.

Eva-Karin Gotting and Maria Mjobo are nurses from Sweden and had been working in the hospitals in the nearest town of Voi. They identified that girls were missing school during their periods as they had no access to sanitary towels due to their cost. Two of the GAFFER Health staff have been trained previously in fabricating washable sanitary towels from cotton and toweling materials. For a variety of reasons the age of girls at the Primary schools GAFFER works runs up to 17 years old. This results in many students experiencing their periods during school. Eva and Maria provided funding for materials and GAFFER Health are facilitating training days in each of our 15 schools. Each training day will get 60 – 80 young ladies to make two washable sanitary towels each. GAFFER hopes this will help the young ladies to be more confident and not miss vital education time! Well done to all involved!

GAFFER took advantage of the school holidays to organize a day of football tournaments, health education and HIV Counseling and Testing for the people in and around Buguta Village!

The Men’s football tournament saw six Villages from the area represented. After hard fought qualifying rounds the Semi-Finals both went to penalty shoot outs! Kale beating Marungu and Mkamenyi showing Kisimenyi how to kick from the spot! Hundreds of fans cheered the teams on in the final match and after a hard fought game Kale reigned supreme with a convincing 2 – 0 victory! The winning team were awarding a large goat for their outstanding efforts! Kale are the team to watch as GAFFER Sport plans the upcoming Kasigau Champions League 6 for the big guys!

GAFFER Health continued to build on their excellent work in the local schools and health centres! The Peer Educators were on hand to answer questions relating to sexual health issues and St. Josephs Centre of Hope provided free Voluntary Counseling and Testing facilities for the assembled. Five nurses occupied private consultation rooms set up by GAFFER Health and tested and talked to those who chose to know their status. By the end of the day 63 people had been tested. HIV Testing is an important tool in the fight against the virus and GAFFER Health aims to work with St. Josephs to increase awareness of the free services available in the area.