Help build “girl-friendly” latrines at schools in Mwandama, Malawi, to provide privacy and sanitation solutions for adolescent girls.

Why we care: Lack of adequate sanitation and hygiene facilities can be a barrier to girls’ education, particularly during puberty.

How we’re solving this: The Show Me Campaign, founded by nine-time Grammy award-winning artist and philanthropist John Legend, is working with the Earth Institute’s Millennium Village Project to construct gender-separate latrines equipped with hand-washing stations at schools.

In Malawi, adolescent girls’ privacy is comprised by the unavailability of gender-separate latrines to accommodate their menstrual needs. Without these basic necessities, girls are often absent from school, leading to high drop-out rates.

Through these facilities, adolescent girls will be able to attend school throughout the month, managing their monthly periods in the private sanitation facilities they need. In addition, the project will offer information sessions on sexual and reproductive health and hygiene for girls. The project will also help fund awareness-raising activities, such as a commemoration on World Toilet Day and will help the Show Me Campaign and the Millennium Village Project distribution sanitary napkins to girls.

Gender-separate latrines have had a positive impact on school attendance and performance in other Millennium Villages throughout Africa. Your funding will help ensure that privacy and hygiene issues do not prevent girls from receiving the educational opportunities they deserve.