Former beauty queens of Nyampinga Foundation for Development (NFD) last week, took their charity drive to Nyanza Districted where they donated sanitary pads to 2,700 girls.

The initiative was in collaboration with a sanitary pads manufacturing company, Inovos Ltd.

Miss Rwanda 2015 and communications director of NFD, Doriane Kundwa told The New Times why they had this initiative.

"Keeping in mind that sanitary pads is one of the most essential items a woman regularly needs, the lack of access to appropriate products can lead to different health issues like infections and diseases and this affects drastically the well-being of those impacted. This is why we decided to take part in doing what we can to enable easy access to good sanitary pads to those in need,” she said.

Kundwa added that partnership the only best way to make this initiative successful since, "Not only do they have good and dignified products, but they also share the same vision and goal, which is to raise awareness of the lack of feminine items like sanitary pads mostly in rural areas, to educate women and girls about the importance of using appropriate products and how this could affect one’s life.”

The former beauty queens further shared that they are making big steps towards their goal. After donating health insurance to 250 families, supporting ex-combatants in Nyarugunga sector with 1000 face masks to prevent Covid-19, their next project was to donate sanitary pads to two schools in Nyanza District; ES Nyanza and GS Gasoro.

Although the global pandemic was a challenge, the foundation managed to navigate the situation and implement their projects remotely with the use of technology regardless of the fact that most of their members live abroad.

Christian Ndinda one of the co-founders of Inovos Ltd explained to The New Times about the partnership.

"We have a long-term partnership with Nyampinga Foundation, this is one of the many events that we have with them. We are always open to work with whoever wants to help women and girls to have access to sanitary pads. And we hope to reach all districts of the country.”

Aline Mudahogora, the Head Girl at GS Gasoro said that the initiative will help increase their performance in schools and the hygiene.

The foundation’s mission is to empower and train Rwandans, eradicate poverty, impart knowledge to women and children, and empower them, through different activities across the country.

"Our way forward is to continue working towards our vision of becoming a role model for higher training and for youth, in particular young women, by imparting knowledge through different projects and activities. We have different coming projects that we will share as soon as they are ready for implementation,” Kundwa said.