P&G brands Tampax and Always created Protecting Futures to raise awareness and build advocacy for a little known issue - that lack of access to sanitary protection can have a significant impact on a girl’s education. Always and Tampax have committed $5 million dollars over five years to provide products and services to keep vulnerable girls in school as well as foster the health and well-being of every child in targeted school communities. Always and Tampax have committed TV, print, interactive, and in-store marketing vehicles to help raise awareness of the issue. The United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA)’s HERO Campaign is the founding partner of the protecting Futures program

According to research, 1 in 10 school-aged African girls do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the lack of clean and private sanitation facilities in school.
(1) If a girl has no access to protective materials or if the materials she has are unreliable and cause embarrassment, she may stay home while menstruating.
(2) This absence of approximately four days of every four weeks may result in the girl missing 10-20% of her school days while her male peers continue their education. As a result, some girls fall far behind in school subjects and perform poorly and/or drop out.

UNICEF, 2005 (1)
World Bank, 2005 (2)
Online references
http://www.wehaitians.com/another%20school%20barrier%20for%20girls%20in%20sub%20saharan%
20africa%20no%20toilet.html

http://www.eepa.be/wcm/component/option,com_remository/func,fileinfo/id,26/

In phase one of the program, the Protecting Futures program focused on improving facilities at regional schools in southern Africa. This includes building/repairing classrooms, toilets and washrooms, dormitories, fencing, implementing nutrition programs, and providing access to clean water. In phase two, the program works through trained health educators to bring health, hygiene and puberty education programs to schools and to distribute pads to girls. In addition, the program supports the UNA-USA HERO Youth Ambassador program where teens from the US and Canada spend part of the summer vacation in Africa helping children and communities at HERO-assisted schools.

Tampax and Always have entered into an important partnership with the HERO campaign of the United Nations Association of the United States of America. The HERO campaign has the goal of providing comprehensive, school-based support to orphans and vulnerable children in HIV-AIDS affected communities in Africa. HERO currently works in four countries: Ethiopia, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. At HERO schools, children receive basic care and services such as food programs, clean water, counseling and visiting nurses. For the first two phases of the program, P&G is joining the HERO alliance in Namibia and South Africa.

Over the next five years, Tampax and Always have made a commitment to contribute over five million dollars, in-kind product, educational materials, and communication support to the Protecting Futures program.

100% of the donations to the HERO campaign go to support the work.

Yes, Protecting Futures is using local partners and will expand this network to sustain our impact. The HERO program now partners with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and works with on-ground partners including UNICEF, CARE, UNESCO, Media in Education Trust (MiET), and The Valley Trust.

Protecting Futures was born out of a successful study by Always in Kenya conducted in conjunction with the Girl Child Network and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). Through this work and then a second project with UNICEF, we’ve reached more than 30,000 girls.

Through the Protecting Futures program this year, Tampax and Always are working to improve school facilities and educational programs, as well as provide resources including sanitary products across nine schools in southern Africa. The program will foster the overall health and well-being of every child in that school’s community. This year, another 2,000 girls will be impacted by our efforts in southern Africa.

People can support the Protecting Futures program by purchasing Tampax and Always. Direct donations to HERO can be made at www.heroaction.org or protectingfutures.com

Education of young people in marginalized regions of the world is a high priority, with some of the highest returns on investment in terms of sustainable economic development. In recognition of this fact, the United Nations has declared a global focus on education in two of the eight Millennium Development Goals. Goal # 3 is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. Goal #2 to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.
Female hygiene is critical to educational access, especially in rural areas where inadequate hygiene is one of the major reasons for poor academic performance, absenteeism and exclusion of girls from schooling. Improving feminine hygiene is particularly vital given that education is so important to girls in escaping the cycle of poverty.

The Protecting Futures program opens the door for Tampax and Always to drive awareness of an issue that is widespread but, because the remote nature of these communities, does not often receive visibility and much-needed resources. This is an opportunity for Tampax and Always to generate awareness and engage others in leveraging positive change in the lives of young girls. In addition to the dollars donated directly to the field, P&G also is dedicating 25% of this year’s marketing vehicles (TV/In-store) to raising awareness around this issue.

Both UNICEF and the World Bank have issued statements and statistics supporting the fact that young girls are missing school as a result of this issue. In 2005, UNICEF released a report stating: 1 in 10 school-age African girls do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the lack of clean and private sanitation facilities in schools.
This is a real problem with many layers of complexities. That’s one of the reasons why Tampax and Always have embarked on a comprehensive program that is not just about providing sanitary products. Protecting Futures is also providing health, hygiene and puberty education to help girls better understand menstruation and their changing bodies as well as building toilets and piping in clean water for girls have a safe, private place to manage their periods while at school. Not only does this program help young school girls, it also helps to foster the overall health and well-being of every child in that school’s community.
We know this type of program can have a big impact. A P&G-sponsored pilot test with UNICEF in Kenya and Malawi is showing a significant increase in school attendance and performance when girls receive pads and puberty education.

HERO, working in consort with CosmoGIRL and beinggirl.com, selects the teen participants for the Youth Ambassador program. Teens interested in getting hands-on experience with the HERO campaign - and supporting the efforts being funded by Protecting Futures – are encouraged to apply online at Beinggirl.com/hero (a website for teens created by founding brands Tampax and Always) to become a HERO Youth Ambassador in 2008. The application involves submitting a 300-word essay and two letters of recommendation. HERO makes the final selection for each year’s YAs.
The 2008 Youth Ambassador program will be open to Canadian applicants for the first time. Twenty teens from North America will have the opportunity to participate in the program and travel to Africa to work on projects funded in-part by the Protecting Futures program.

To learn more about the HERO Youth Ambassadors, please visit www.beinggirl.com/hero and www.heroaction.org. Since October 2007, beinggirl.com/hero has featured webisodes that capture the 2007 Youth Ambassador’s summer experience in Africa working with HERO on projects funded in-part by the Protecting Futures program

While our primary focus is on helping girls stay in school during their periods, we recognize the need for adequate disposal options. We will work with community leaders to make sure we are providing the right solution for each school which in most cases will be simple-to-operate incinerators.

We have made a five-year commitment to the Protecting Futures program and will continue to expand the work each year moving forward. Every school we touch will be maintained over the course of the five years. It is our goal to raise awareness of this issue among policy makers in these communities so that they join with us in finding solutions. The objective is to help provide resources to the community so that it can eventually sustain itself.

Studies show that schools are becoming the best line of defense against new infections and the spread of disease. In these communities schools are playing a far greater role than just learning. In some cases they are providing the only consistent access to daily food, healthcare, clean water, clothing and much needed social services like bereavement and rape crisis counseling.
Given that lack of access to sanitary protection can significantly impact a girl’s education, Protecting Futures is working to ensure that girls can stay in school and continue their education while they are menstruating. As the feminine protection market leaders, Always and Tampax feel we are uniquely positioned to help tackle this issue

No. Although both Tampax and Always equally support the Protecting Futures, we are only distributing pads to girls.

In many African communities, this is what women and girls have done for centuries. In some regions of Africa, cloth or another form of reusable sanitary protection is a very appropriate method of sanitary protection. However, Protecting Futures is working in regions where there is little or no access to clean water. Therefore, women in these regions do not have a sanitary way to wash their reusable form of protection, which can lead to infection. In these regions, disposable pads provide a safe, healthy, and reliable method of sanitary protection for women and girls.

Always and Tampax have been providing free puberty education programs to over 10,000,000 girls globally (including the US). These are programs which individual schools opt into and receive via a request from the classroom teacher or school nurse. In the US, over 90% of 5th grade girls receive free puberty education developed by Always in their classrooms.

The complexity of this issue is one reason why we’ve joined forces with the HERO campaign and their on-the-ground partners. We are committed to operating as a learning organization to better understand the cultural sensitivities. We are also committed to a comprehensive program that is not just about providing product.
We are providing puberty education to help girls better understand menstruation and their changing bodies (building from the experience of our school programs which reach over 10 millions girls around the world every year). We are building toilets, providing incinerators and piping in clean water so girls have a safe, private place to manage their periods while at school.

P&G as a company has had a presence in Africa for over 60 years. Our products have been sold in Africa since 1947 and we established on-the-ground operations in Morocco in 1958.
Related to this project, P&G FemCare is in the second year of a two-year program launched in Kenya in 2006 by Always in partnership with the Girl Child Network. This program provides puberty education and pads to approximately 15,000 girls and is funded through 2008. The program has seen significant results in improved attendance and performance of girls in school and the Kenyan government is planning to include pads in the distribution of school supplies in some areas.

As we grow each year, Protecting Futures and its partners will identify which communities in Africa are most in need of our support and resources.

www.protectingfutures.com
www.beinggirl.com
www.heroaction.org

There are a number of ways in which you can share your support for the program:
o If you are between the ages of 16 and 19 or know someone who is, you can apply to become a 2008 HERO Youth Ambassador. Applications are available at www.beinggirl.com/hero through March 1, 2008.
o Through the HERO Youth Ambassador program, teens have the opportunity to travel to southern Africa each summer for a month-long service and education program, working to support HERO schools through projects funded by the Protecting Futures program.
o You can purchase Always pads and Tampax tampons. Your purchase supports this important project.
o You can make a monetary donation through HERO by visiting www.heroaction.org.
o Log onto www.heroaction.org and join Club HERO. You will be able to get your friends and school involved, talk to your peers about global issues through cool message boards, as well as participate in Model UN Conventions and/or upcoming HERO Youth Ambassador Trips!
o You can download IM and Web page badges to help spread the word.
o Protecting Futures T-shirts are available on the website – not only will you be generating awareness about the cause, a percentage of the sales will also be donated to help projects funded by the Protecting Futures program.

We are working to develop a program that will allow you to donate pads. Once this has been implemented we will post information on the ProtectingFutures.com. In the meantime, your purchase helps support the program or you can help fund the program by donating at HEROaction.org or protectingfutures.com.

Yes. If you are interested in joining the network of partners, please contact: Meghan McGurkin at Manning, Selvage & Lee (meghan.mcgurkin@mslpr.com). Please note that there are certain criteria required in order to become a partner or sponsor.

Please contact: Meghan McGurkin Manning, Selvage & Lee meghan.mcgurkin@mslpr.com