WCI Intern Projects
We believe in the importance of empowering the next generation of change makers.
WCI Interns are provided guidance and mentorship to create a project and execute so that they too can make an impact to help children play harder and live longer.
Projet Jeune Leader is an organization in Madagascar with a mission to provide high-quality comprehensive sexuality education to young adolescents across rural Madagascar — at scale, for the first time.
The organization's specialized Educators harness the power of comprehensive sexuality education to improve adolescents’ health, education, safety, and well-being. As part of their school-based program, Projet Jeune Leader produces and distributes educational magazines to young adolescents. These magazines reinforce key topics taught by their Educators in the formal classroom setting, in a fun and visual way.
WCI Intern: Maya Harish
Menstruation Education in Madagascar
Women and girls globally struggle with inadequate access to menstrual hygiene management. It is not only a health concern, but also an obstacle to girls' education and a barrier to gender equality. Lack of access to menstruation/reproductive health education, menstrual products, and menstrual hygiene facilities disrupts education for menstruating students. This issue starts as early as elementary school when girls in low-income countries such as Madagascar resort to absenteeism to avoid menstruation embarrassment. These students miss out on education, which causes them to fall behind, and later possibly dropout. This increased dropout rate for young girls causes difficulty when entering the job market and further perpetuates the low status of women in society. More information on the issue can be found in this literature review written by Maya Harish.
to support maya’s project
Maya & WCI aim to help young girls in Madagascar deal with these concerns by expanding youth-focused and youth-developed education on menstrual health. To do so, we have partnered with Projet Jeune Leader, a Malagasy non-profit organization that designs curricula - as part of their comprehensive sexuality education program - designs educational materials and periodicals focused on teaching girls how to understand the changes in their bodies, take care of their sanitary needs, and safeguard their future physical and mental health. To support Maya's menstrual health & hygiene education initiative, please click here:
*Funds donated through this portal are earmarked to fund menstrual health education in Madagascar. To send a check, please write "Maya Harish" in the memo line and mail to: Attn: Maya Harish @ WCI, P.O. Box 7281, Boulder, CO 80306