We need to talk about periods. And not the much-loved punctuation, but the big red elephant in the room. And while hardly dinner-table conversation, periods have a dramatic and yet under-discussed impact on health, education, and conservation in the developing world.

Rutooma Primary School, one of our newer schools, has won the 2018 Kasiisi Project/Kibale Forest Schools’ Program Music, Dance & Drama Competition. Competition was stiff, and they narrowly beat Kasiisi Primary School in the run-off competition. 

Human papilloma virus (HPV) is a preventable cause of cervical cancer for which there is a vaccine. Vaccinations against HPV are of particular importance for rural girls as few of them ever get cervical cancer screening. The vaccine is free and available at local clinics in Uganda,  but there is no money to take health workers into schools to ensure everyone has access to the vaccine and gets a  full regimen. In the last month we have facilitated HPV vaccinations for over 1,000 girls in Kasiisi Project Schools. The Kibale Forest Schools’ Program/Kasiisi Project health team liaised between schools and clinics, organized parental letters of consent and funded transport of health workers to all 16 schools.

Thanks to generous contributions from the Waterloo Foundation (UK) , Dry Creek Charity  and First Parish Church, Weston, Kiko Primary Schools’ children have a long future of plentiful, year-round clean water from their own borehole. Currently schools rely on rain water catchment systems which run out quickly during the two dry seasons.