Help Girls in Ethiopia Stay in School, Safe and Empowered

“I am Fenet, 13. When I have my period, I stay home. There is no private toilet at school. No water. No pad. My friends tease me if I stain my dress. I miss 4 to 5 days every month. By the end of the year, I am behind. Some of my friends never came back.”

For girls like Fenet, something as natural as menstruation can become a major barrier to education, dignity, safety, and opportunity.

Across many communities in Ethiopia, adolescent girls face multiple and interconnected challenges, including poverty, menstrual health and hygiene barriers, gender-based violence, harmful gender norms, child protection risks, early marriage, and limited access to reliable sexual and reproductive health information and services. When girls lack private toilets, water, menstrual materials, accurate information, and supportive environments, they may miss school, withdraw from activities, lose confidence, or fall behind their peers.

ECYDO believes that no girl should have to choose between her health and her education, or remain silent because she has nowhere safe to turn.

Through our Girls' Empowerment and Safe Space initiatives, Eshet Children and Youth Development Organization (ECYDO) creates supportive environments where adolescent girls can learn, build confidence, understand their rights, access essential information, connect with peers, and seek support.

Our approach brings together education, protection, menstrual health and hygiene, sexual and reproductive health, GBV prevention and survivor support, life skills, and girls' leadership.

In these safe spaces, girls can receive age-appropriate information about menstruation, menstrual hygiene, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and protection. We also support girls' clubs and peer networks that enable them to discuss challenges affecting their lives, build confidence, develop leadership skills, and know where to seek help.

For girls experiencing gender-based violence, ECYDO works to strengthen safe, confidential, and survivor-centered pathways to appropriate psychosocial, health, protection, legal, and other essential services, in line with safeguarding principles.

Your donation can help us:

• Establish and strengthen safe spaces where girls can learn, build confidence, and seek support;
• Provide menstrual health and hygiene information, education, and essential menstrual materials;
• Support girls to better understand menstruation and manage their periods safely, hygienically, and with dignity;
• Advocate for and support access to safe, private, and girl-friendly WASH facilities where possible;
• Provide educational, life-skills, and empowerment materials;
• Support girls' clubs, peer networks, mentoring, and leadership activities;
• Provide age-appropriate information on sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, rights, and protection;
• Strengthen referral pathways for girls who need specialized health, psychosocial, legal, protection, or other support services;
• Provide survivor-centered support and referrals for girls and young women affected by gender-based violence (GBV), helping them access appropriate services safely and with dignity; and
• Help girls develop the confidence, skills, voice, and leadership they need to participate in decisions about their lives and communities.

ECYDO has reached more than 243,800 children and young people through 31 projects between 2015 and 2025, with a strong focus on adolescent girls, young women, health, protection, gender equality, and youth leadership.

But there are still many girls like Fenet who need support.

Your donation can help make sure that a girl's period does not become a reason to miss school, that violence does not become something she has to face alone, and that lack of opportunity does not determine her future.

A contribution to ECYDO is an investment in safety, dignity, education, health, confidence, and opportunity.

This is more than creating a physical safe space. It is about creating a space where a girl can learn without fear, manage her period with dignity, speak without being silenced, seek help when she experiences violence, discover her potential, and begin to shape her own future.

Help us create safe spaces where girls can learn, heal, lead, and thrive.

Donate today. Stand with girls like Fenet. Help protect her present and empower her future.