Advancing Nutrition, Education, and Wellbeing
IThe Dignity Project graph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
TRIBAL NORTH AMERICA
In May 2020, ANEW launched an initiative that reflects our driving principle that girls on the threshold of adolescence have a fundamental right to freedom, health, and dignity as they travel through adulthood.
Our new project focuses on improving menstrual health and hygiene for girls and women in Native American communities.
One aspect of this effort is direct support for the work of The Kwek Society, an Arlington, VA-based nonprofit that provides educational materials, pads, tampons, and underwear to Native American communities without ready access to affordable menstrual supplies.
The Navajo Nation
We are providing direct support for girls and women in the Navajo Nation, with a population of more than 205,000 living in a territory occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico.
Like tribal women in India, Native American women face serious obstacles in managing their period. They don’t have access to safe affordable menstrual hygiene products. Pads and tampons sold at reservation stores—if they are available at all—cost two or three times as much as the same product off the reservation. School-age Navajo girls who can't afford pads or tampons may skip school for as long as a week; some leave school completely before graduating.
ANEW's Dignity project provides the Navajo Nation with more than 200 menstrual pads each month to ensure school-age girls and disadvantaged Navajo women have dependable access to clean, safe menstrual products when the need is greatest.
COVID-19 RESPONSE
The Navajo Nation has one of the country's highest rates of coronavirus infection. Because Tribal populations in the United States have suffered for centuries from notoriously poor access to health care, preventive measures are especially important among the Navajo people. JJMM has organized teams to sew face masks using a CDC-approved pattern. Our washable masks include aluminum nose bridges to ensure a tight seal and an open inside seam to accommodate additional layers of filter material.
To make a one-time or recurring donation earmarked specifically for our Navajo relief effort, text 1491 to 44-321
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.