Early September, Women on Wings and Dharma Life worked on the ‘Making periods normal’ program in Delhi. Dharma Life recruits and trains women in Bihar to become Dharma Life Entrepreneurs (DLE’s) in the sales & distribution of sanitary pads. Not only do these women earn an income, they also become a role model in their community, creating behavioral change in the use of hygienic menstruation materials.
Crunching numbers, simplifying formats and good fun
Running a program from the Netherlands with an implementing partner in India can be challenging. A lot can be discussed via Skype but every now and then it’s beneficial the partners meet and take time for evaluation, brainstorm and in-depth discussions. This helps to stay focused.
Adrianne Jonquiere-Breure, Program Manager Sanitary Pads at Women on Wings: “We need to keep track of the DLE’s and the income they make so we can measure the impact and take action when needed. We discussed what information we really need, and what information we can expect from the field team in Bihar. And how can we make reporting as effective as possible? Excel became our best friend and by the end of Thursday afternoon we were pretty proud of the reporting format we had created.”
Making the program model scalable and replicable
Another topic Adrianne worked on with Dharma Life was the preparation of a four days meeting with all partners in the ‘Making periods normal’ program in Bihar early October. Women on Wings expert Carolijn Michels joined in the preparations via Skype to determine objectives and goals of the meeting. With the outcome Carolijn and fellow expert José van Aken are now in the process of preparing a two day workshop with the Indian program partners during that meeting. The aim of this workshop is to set up a system in which all necessary ingredients will be gathered so the program model can be replicated in other areas without reinventing the wheel. In the first week of October José and Carolijn will attend the coordination meeting and subsequently have the workshop. First it will be about how collaboration can lead to synergy and success. Then more practical on how the system will be set up.
