Sanitary Kit Drive

In Sierra Leone, a large number of young girls do not have access to sanitary products and as a result, they substitute sanitary products with ‘pieces’ (small scraps of fabric or old cloth), which as you can imagine, is not very hygienic. This is due to a lack of funds to buy proper sanitary products.

Who will benefit:

The Black Women’s Forum UK, in collaboration with Project Pikin, will be running a Menstrual Hygiene and Sanitary Kit Drive. The aim of the project is to raise essential funds to provide every young girl involved with Project Pikin, Sanitary hygiene kits, to last them for a year.


The lack of sanitary products affects our girl's performance and/or attendance in school, as girls often miss school because of this. According to UNICEF, 20% of girls in Sierra Leone, lose weeks of school a year, simply because they do not have a reliable way to manage their period. In some cases, girls that cannot afford proper menstrual care stay at home for the whole period of their menstruation, in order to avoid embarrassment. Some even miss their test and exams.

In other cases, to ration the pads and limit expenses, they wear their pads longer than the advised time. Imagine wearing one pad for the whole day. That could lead to some severe hygiene issues.

Along with this excruciating pain for some girls and hormonal mood swings, we want to relieve the stress of looking for how to afford sanitary products for these underprivileged girls.



We aim to improve access to disposable and reusable sanitary products through donations. We also aim to sensitise and educate the beneficiaries on the importance of safe menstrual hygiene management.

All proceeds will be shared with the beneficiaries, whom we have identified as 60 young girls, involved with Project Pikin. The donations will be shared with all the beneficiaries on World Menstrual Hygiene Day, on the 28th May 2021, during a Menstrual Hygiene Masterclass.

Who is The Black Women's Forum UK?

The Black Women's Forum UK is an intentional space, created to share, empower and engage with self-defining women and non-binary people of African, Asian, Arab and Caribbean descent living in the UK. Founded in 2012, by Beverly Sesay and Malia Bouttia, after a successful Black Women’s Conference 2012, at the University London Union, which included workshops and plenaries. These spaces allow a different form of empowerment, particularly for women because not only do we face issues with sexism, patriarchy, misogyny, but questions of race are just as paramount in the complex discourse. The Forum motivates young black people to discover or deepen their knowledge of Black women’s contributions throughout history. 

List of the items in each Sanitary hygiene kit and what will your money do?

1.       Sanitary products
2.       Underwear x2
3.       Bar of soap
4.       Toothpaste
5.       Toothbrush
6.       Hand sanitisers
7.       Deodorant
8.       Bag

The Cost: Le70,000 / $7.00 = 1 Sanitary hygiene kit.

$7.00 x 12 = $84 will buy a year's supply of Sanitary hygiene kit for 1 girl. 

If you would like to donate the sanitary products instead of a monetary donation, then you can send these items to the following locations:

International donations:
26 Bateman House, Otto Street, London SE17 3PF  

Freetown donations:
59 Roberts Street, Freetown, Sierra Leone 

Your donations will mean a great deal to us and we will be so grateful to you for helping us to purchase these products for all the girls in need.

No amount Is too small, every little helps!

"Having access to sanitary pads (reusable or disposable) improves a girl’s physical health and restores their sense of dignity."

Please share this campaign with your friends & family.

If you have any questions: please contact us via email on blackwomensforumuk@gmail.com / projectpikin.sl@gmail.com or via phone on +447846573977/+232 88 997875

You can connect with us on social media to learn more about our campaign, at the following link:  https://www.instagram.com/projectpikin/ 

Thank you.

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