Over the summer, Newtown High School student Renee Chard embarked on her senior capstone project early, collecting menstrual products for the Ubuntu Community Based Organization in Kenya.

Renee said she became more motivated than ever to engage in this effort after she virtually met with the organization Founder Lillian Nyakio and learned girls in Kenya must skip a week of school while on their periods because of a lack of access to pads.

Lia Levitt, a private college admissions advisor for the NHS senior at her business Academic Architect, turned Renee over to the cause and connected her to Nyakio via a video call.

Levitt said she knew the idea of collecting pads for the organization would be “great” for a senior’s cumulative project — she just had to find “the right person” to introduce it to.

To Levitt, this person had to have “a philanthropic mindset” and be an individual who “would essentially be interested in the betterment of people in a place where they have not been and may never go.”

“I met Renee and the fate was sealed,” said Levitt. “I could tell within the first meeting that she was the right person for this.”

Connection To Cause

Levitt’s intuition was correct.

In a conversation with The Newtown Bee, Renee described why she naturally aligned with the project.

Expressing a lifelong interest in women’s history and women’s rights — even describing herself as a “women’s rights advocate” — Renee said she was just a child when she first began noticing disparities in opportunity based on gender.

This growing interest led to inspiring her to connect to this particular initiative, and was the reason why it strongly resonated with her when it was introduced. The video call with Nyakio that Levitt facilitated appeared to seal the deal for the high school student, motivating her to start her project for Senior Experiences class early.

She recounted Nyakio describing a very different and “surreal” experience from her own — one where a normal, monthly period would keep a student home from school.

“I felt so passionate about what [Nyakio] was telling me and I’m very grateful to hear what she had to say. It just educated me so much,” said Renee.

Renee explained how there are girls and women who have “the potential to do so much,” but lack access to a necessity which is “holding them back” and putting them behind their male classmates academically.

“There’s nothing we can do about [menstruation], it’s our bodies,” said Renee.

“Pads are expensive; I don’t know why,” added Renee. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous.”

Renee said the conversation helped her learn she takes the conveniences of living in Newtown for granted, and added she is “so lucky” and “grateful” for what she has.

A mid-August BBC report from By Esther Ogola, Gem O’Reilly, and Favour Nunoo surveyed nine countries around Africa to see how affordable period products are, and compared the minimum wage to the local cost of the cheapest sanitary pads and found they were beyond the reach of many women.

In six of the countries studied by the BBC, women on the minimum wage have to spend between 3-13 percent of their salary to buy two packets of sanitary towels containing eight pads — what many women will need each month.

A woman in Ghana earning a minimum wage of $26 a month would have to spend $3, or one in every $7 they make to buy two packets of sanitary towels containing eight pads. In Kenya, the survey found that expense amounted to a little under one percent.

BBC reports that according to the World Bank, 500 million women worldwide have no access to menstrual products. A considerable part of the reason is many governments still look at feminine products as luxury items, rather than consumer goods or basic necessities, meaning the tax imposed on them is akin to a “luxury tax,” imposed on items considered non-essential, which only wealthy people will buy.

These taxes are usually higher than on basic goods.

In 2004, Kenya became the first country in the world to remove tax on period products. In 2016 it went further to remove tax on raw materials used to manufacture sanitary pads. Consequently the price of pads in Kenya has fallen, with the cheapest period products in 2023 retailing for 50 Kenya shillings (35 US cents), making it the country with the most affordable pads in the BBC study.

‘Beyond The Capstone’

Renee described the requirements of the capstone project as “hands-on” and “out-of-the-box” thinking, and “to show four years of years of who you are.”

At the end of the process, students taking the Senior Experience class must conduct a presentation on their project graded on a “pass-fail” basis.

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” said Renee on this requirement, later adding, “This capstone is kind of just going to work itself out, if that makes sense.”

Renee expressed she was preoccupied with gathering the most donations for the organization she can — and also initiating new conversations in town “beyond the capstone.”

She said she wants people to realize the cause is important, as the problem is continuous.

“It’s going to make a difference,” Renee said on her project, “but it doesn’t fix this worldwide. It’s still going to be an issue.”

Renee also referenced local opportunities to help women with access to these necessities, including local food pantries and shelters.

Levitt described herself and Renee as “equal volunteers” in the collaboration, explaining that while her work includes connecting Renee to the opportunity and supporting her through the process, her personal interest motivates her to go “above and beyond” for the cause.

Levitt added she would like to publicly thank currently participating organizations, and that they were still searching for more businesses for home collection boxes.

Currently, the boxes are accessible for donations locally at Aquila’s Nest Vineyards, the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, Rosalind Road Café & Juice Bar, Lotus Nails & Spa in Brookfield, Cosmopolitan Hair Salon in Brewster, New York; and the Newtown Community Center.

Renee explained because of a cultural difference, the organization is not accepting tampons, only pads. Included on the boxes is a Venmo code, allowing donations for the eventual overseas shipping cost of the items collected.

To learn more about the Ubuntu Community Based Organization, visit ubuntukenyacbo.org.

Reporter Noelle Veillette can be reached at noelle@thebee.com.