Footprints Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower girls from underserved and marginalized communities in South Africa. Footprints Foundation implements programs throughout the country, focusing on education access, menstrual health management, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and reproductive health. Footprints Foundation’s projects focus on providing resources for health and education infrastructure, supporting other local nongovernmental organizations, and offering direct services to local girls.The organization is guided by a theory of change which emphasizes collective, grassroots action and recognizes that local communities must be involved in efforts to improve girls’ access to education.
Lack of access to safe, dignified WASH infrastructure is a significant barrier to girls’ education access in South Africa. 26 percent of the country’s schools do not have access to water, and the problem is particularly acute in rural areas where 33 percent of the population does not have access to basic sanitation services. As a result, many girls are missing school because they do not have access to WASH facilities to manage their menstruation. These absences often later lead to girls dropping out of school completely as they struggle to recover academically.
The Girls Opportunity Alliance will support Footprint Foundation’s WASH infrastructure project. Footprints Foundation will build toilet facilities at Skhila Secondary School in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. In the first phase of the project, Footprints Foundation will fund the costs of installing infrastructure to establish WASH facilities in the school. In the second phase of the project, the organization will offer workshops to teach girls about properly managing their menstrual health. Footprints Foundation will also provide girls with soap, sanitizers, and menstrual health products. The project expects to serve 1,000 girls.
Through this project, Footprints Foundation will help remove a significant barrier to education access. Every girl deserves a safe, healthy environment to learn, one in which she is not limited by the shame and stigma created by a lack of access to WASH facilities. Footprints Foundation will work toward making this vision a reality, enabling girls to reach their full potential in school and beyond. To learn more about Footprints Foundation, please visit the organization’s website and social media pages:
See more projects: Africa, Southern Africa, Health & Wellbeing, Menstrual Health