Project title: Girl’s Pride

Fatoumata Kassama – The Gambia

Fatoumatta project focuses on developing a board game tailored and promote the use of reusable pads among youths in The Gambia. The board game addresses taboo topics such as menstrual hygiene management, reproductive health, child abuse, and other taboo subjects. As the founder of Girls’ Pride, a social enterprise addressing period poverty and promoting menstrual hygiene, Fatoumatta aims to use edutainment and educative campaigns to break taboos and normalize conversations around periods, abuse, and reproduction. Through the board game, Gambian youths and adults will have the opportunity to learn about these topics in an engaging and stigma-free manner, fostering open dialogue within homes, schools, and communities. Girl’s Pride has recorded amazing progress since implementation began. 

• 3,250 students have played the game and its impact on their lives has been significant.
• The board game has been introduced and integrated into 65 secondary schools in The Gambia.
  • Training of 25 Home Science Teachers in the North Bank Region on Hand-Made Reusable Pad Production and setting up pad banks in their schools (Funded by the US Embassy in Banjul)
  • Nationwide school campaign (150 schools, junior & senior) on menstrual health and hygiene management and gender-based violence (Supported by UNFPA-Gambia)
  • Training of 25 Home Science Teachers in the Lower River Region on Hand-Made Reusable Pad Production, setting up pad banks in their schools, and gamified menstrual health and hygiene management education using the Funneh Board Game
• Pads for Plastic (P4P) initiative:
  • 54 girls are engaged in the P4P project.
  • The volume of plastic waste collected: each girl collected 100 used plastic bottles exchanged for a kit of reusable pads (3 pads per girl, pads reusable for 3 years)
• Over 5,000 reusable pads have been produced and distributed to women in The Gambia
• Public events where the Funeh board game has been presented:
  • UNFPA International Women’s Day Celebration 2023
  • Gambia Youth Chamber of Commerce Trade Fair (Ministry of Health of The Gambia-World Bank SWEDD Project Stall)
  • High-Level Event – Caring Territories Against Gender-Based Violence (Conference for Mayors from Africa and Europe)
  • UNDP Gambia Youth Dialogue event with the presence of the UNDP Regional Director for Africa