Kate Parry writes in:
One reason why girls drop out of school in Uganda, and doubtless elsewhere in Africa, is the difficulty that they have handling their monthly periods. Sanitary towels are too expensive for many of them, and without adequate protection, they suffer excruciating embarrassment. Many simply skip school for one week every month, and some drop out altogether.
Shelley Jones, a researcher at Kitengesa who worked with and through the library, identified this problem, and Afri-Pads was established to address it. Its managers, Pauls Grinwalds and Sophia Klumpp, employed a single tailor, a graduate of Kitengesa Comprehensive Secondary School, early in 2009 and set up a workshop for her in Kitengesa Trading Centre. Together they developed a reusable sanitary towel that could be sold at a price rural Ugandan school girls could afford. The demand for the product has grown rapidly, so by June they were employing four tailors (one of whom is a former Kitengesa Library Scholar) and knew they would soon need more space.
The Kitengesa Community Library has been able to help. The library was initially established in a single room building on the school's compound, but when in 2008 it
towards a computer centre the decision was made to put up a new building to accommodate the centre and a community hall as well. The library has recently moved into the new building, so the old one is available for Afri-Pads to use as a larger workshop. 
Afri-Pads is paying rent, which is being shared between the library and the school, and so everyone is benefitting-and the new library will be used by Afri-Pads as a venue for workshops on sexual health. The pictures show Afri-Pads' tailors in their new space.
For more information, see www.afripads.com and www.kitengesalibrary.org.
Shelley Jones, a researcher at Kitengesa who worked with and through the library, identified this problem, and Afri-Pads was established to address it. Its managers, Pauls Grinwalds and Sophia Klumpp, employed a single tailor, a graduate of Kitengesa Comprehensive Secondary School, early in 2009 and set up a workshop for her in Kitengesa Trading Centre. Together they developed a reusable sanitary towel that could be sold at a price rural Ugandan school girls could afford. The demand for the product has grown rapidly, so by June they were employing four tailors (one of whom is a former Kitengesa Library Scholar) and knew they would soon need more space.
The Kitengesa Community Library has been able to help. The library was initially established in a single room building on the school's compound, but when in 2008 it
towards a computer centre the decision was made to put up a new building to accommodate the centre and a community hall as well. The library has recently moved into the new building, so the old one is available for Afri-Pads to use as a larger workshop. 
Afri-Pads is paying rent, which is being shared between the library and the school, and so everyone is benefitting-and the new library will be used by Afri-Pads as a venue for workshops on sexual health. The pictures show Afri-Pads' tailors in their new space. For more information, see www.afripads.com and www.kitengesalibrary.org.
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