 In 2006, I traveled to Tanzania, Africa on a fact finding mission to discover just how the nonprofit group, AFRICAN REFLECTIONS FOUNDATION was changing the lives of people in Africa. One of the facts I was sad to discover was that once little girls begin to have their periods, they stop coming to school.
And, the reasons they stay away are simple and sad. First, they have no feminine hygiene products and no money to buy them. Second, of the three bathrooms at the school, none have doors for privacy. In fact, the rest room consists of just a hole in the ground, with a wall providing a partition-but no real privacy. Embarrassed, the girls just stop showing up. And, that means their educations are in jeopardy.
I met 104 girls at the Mkokozi Primary School just outside of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania who have to go to a school without proper facilities. I was taken by how intelligent and beautiful they are. Hope and promise are present in their eyes and my heart aches to think that the lack of feminine hygiene products could change their future. So, I have decided to change that. I am asking women around the world to join me and contribute to the Such Beautiful Girls Campaign.
 Help me change the lives of girls in rural Tanzania.
The money will be used to construct adequate bathroom facilities and provide feminine hygiene products for the girls. How many toilets are needed? We need to build at least ten restrooms; five for the boys and five for the girls. If you are a woman, you can remember that time in your life, when you changed from a girl into a young woman and how unsettling this time in your life might have been. Now, imagine not having feminine products. Help me make this time a more comfortable, personal and special for the girls.
AFRICAN REFLECTIONS FOUNDATION (ARF) has adopted the school and I am now serving as the International Ambassador for ARF. If you would like to help with the "Such Beautiful Girls Campaign", just click on the link for “African Reflections.” website.
Thanks,
Elaine Houston
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