Link to story: Story on Simavi website

Leveraging existing structures to

promote and sustain WASH: The story
of the Bed ki Gen Dream Girls
Story: Bed ki Igen Dream Girls, Uganda
The Bed ki Gen Dream Girls in Uganda work
on improving sanitation facilities, menstrual
health and the income of its members.

Members of the Bed ki Gen Dream Girls VSLA group holding samples of their
reusable menstrual pads. On the right chairperson Victoria Akot.

Text by Hanifah Kasule

When HEWASA, a local Simavi partner in the WASH SDG

programme, wanted to use existing community structures as a
basis to start fighting open defecation and to increase the
knowledge of menstrual health among schoolgirls, they were keen
to work with the Bed ki Igen Dream Girls women’s group.

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“In the beginning, our group was only focused on improving the
incomes of its members by engaging in four main activities: liquid
soap making, bar soap making, chair and tent hiring, and making of
reusable menstrual pads” says Victoria Akot, the group’s
chairperson. Victoria goes on to explain that now, the group has
added a WASH loan to their portfolio, and they are also raising
awareness on menstrual health in schools and communities.

How does the Bed ki Gen Dream Girls group

operate?
The pads are mainly sold in schools around the village whereas the
soap is sold to village members especially on market days. The
tents and chairs are hired out to community members that have
ceremonies or events. To keep the VSLA operational, members
make weekly cash contributions of not less than UGX 2,000 (about
Euro 0.5) and an additional welfare amount of UGX 500.

The money is saved in the group’s bank account which has three
signatories: the group’s chairperson, the secretary, and the
treasurer. Upon assessment of a loan application by the group’s
loan committee, a member can borrow up to a minimum of UGX
100,000 and a maximum of UG 500,000, at an interest rate of 10%
per month. As of April 2023, the group has accumulated savings of
UGX 3,800,000 in the group bank account.

Interesting the group into taking up WASH

promotion
At the onset, the intention of HEWASA was to introduce WASH
(Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) aspects into the activities of the
group, specifically a sanitation loan product. This was because
community members had cited affordability as the main reason for
not constructing latrines. At that point, the group’s activities did not
yet include a big WASH component, besides the making of
reusable menstrual pads.

Based on HEWASA’s experience and success of working with

sanitation loans, a proposal was tabled to the group to introduce a
sanitation loan product for its members. However, it was necessary

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for groundwork to be laid before such a product could be
introduced. This included enhancing the capacity of the group to
manage their money and the lending process through trainings on
the WASH value chain financing, resource mobilization, credit
management, marketing of WASH loan products, and risk
management.

According to Josephine Ajalo (33 years old), the group treasurer for
the past four years and the first beneficiary of the sanitation loan
product, the financial management sessions with HEWASA
introduced the group to better ways of keeping their business and
financial records which resulted into easier follow-ups of their
different business ventures.

By the end of 2022, HEWASA had successfully supported the

group to introduce a dedicated sanitation loan product which group
members and non-members can access and use to construct
latrines for their homes. As of 2023, eight (8) group members have
obtained a WASH loan and have used it to construct latrines with
washable floors.

Engaging the group on menstrual health in schools

Since the group was already making reusable menstrual pads,
HEWASA used that as an entry point to also engage the group on
menstrual hygiene management (MHM). Group members were
capacitated to talk to the girls in the schools where the pads are
sold on proper management of the pads, and to offer trainings on
the making of reusable menstrual pads to schools and
communities. Where at the beginning group members visited
schools with the sole aim of marketing their reusable menstrual
pads, now the sessions with the girls have inspired them to
continue engaging with them. And currently, they even organize
regular sessions on menstrual health. These sessions are
conducted in five schools where the average number of pupils per
school is 480.
Using existing community structures as a basis for
sustainability
The story of the Bed ki Gen Dream Girls demonstrates the
importance of leveraging the strengths of existing community
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structures and strengthening them further to promote WASH. It
brings to light an important lesson; instead of investing in creating
new structures, it is better to look at existing ones and find entry
points through which to engage. This is also a good sustainability
strategy for those structures; when new programmes engage and
work with these structures and subsequently strengthen them, there
is a higher likelihood of those structures remaining operational in
the long run.

Simavi colleague Hanifah Kasule (in the middle) interviewed the Bed ki Gen Dream
Girls
About Bed ki Gen Dream Girls
The group was started in 2018 in Alupere ward of Kalongo town
council in Agago district, under a USAID funded programme.
Presently, it has 39 members, and it is registered as a Village
Savings and Loans Association (VSLA). The group is managed by
a democratically elected committee with the following positions:
chairperson, secretary, treasurer, 2 money counters, a two-person
loan committee, mobilizer, and 2 timekeepers.