Kenya partnership spreads global solutions for girls
From staff reports
Global changemaker Madhvi Dalal travels from her native Kenya to Northern Michigan this October for a series of events at which she’ll share solutions to some of the most surprising and challenging issues facing women and girls across the world.
The visit expands a partnership between Dalal and the Uplift Travel Foundation—a Leelanau-based nonprofit where participants travel with a purpose, walking alongside local visionaries to help them solve their community’s most pressing issues while finding authentic connections and friendships that transcend borders. Uplift has worked with Dalal to provide reusable menstrual pads and empowerment training to women in villages across Kenya’s Maasai Mara (where they’ve led trips for years). The project now also includes Northwestern Michigan College staff and students in a variety of exciting ways.
“I think what Uplift does is remarkable,” Dalal said. “It’s simple yet so powerful. They guide travelers to not just see a country but to feel it; to see the community, share meals, listen to stories and for all to forge friendships.”
The Traverse City State Theatre showcases Dalal’s work Oct. 8 in a partnership between the theater, NMC’s International Affairs Forum, the college’s International Services and Service Learning department and Uplift. The event will include a screening of two award-winning films that feature Dalal, as well as a keynote and question and answer session to follow.
“This kind of authentic exchange carries PadMad’s mission far and wide,” said Dalal.
A second event to raise funds for the Uplift Travel Foundation on Oct. 10 at Brengman Family Wines, will allow more informal interaction with Dalal while featuring African food, local wine and call and response songs from a local Ubuntu network choir.
Event specifics
Both documentaries being screened at the State Theatre Community Night have earned international acclaim. Powerful Women, directed by Chilean filmmakers Belén Soto Infante and Gonzalo Ruiz, highlights the stories of three women changing the world, including Dalal who shares her journey and impact on Kenyan communities. It won three awards at the Cannes World Film Festival—including honors for Best Director and Best Women’s Film.
The second short film, Bleed with Pride, was inspired by Dalal’s menstrual health campaign and focuses on the empowerment integrated into the locally sourced fabrics chosen for the distributed pads. It was screened at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and earned two award nominations.
The evening at the State Theatre opens with local drumming group Jam Rek, which has brought African rhythms to the area for the past 15 years and ends with a question and answer session by Dalal. Tickets cost $10. Donations will also be accepted at the event. An extra $10 covers the cost of a set of washable cotton pads made by disenfranchised women in Kenya, pads that will last a Kenyan woman or girl up to six years; it additionally covers the cost of a pair of underwear and laundry soap.
The Oct. 10 event includes a silent auction of local and Kenyan art and experiences, live music by TC Sings, wine and a trio of chef-curated appetizers. Of each $35 ticket sold, $10 goes to meet the needs of Kenyan girls.
Dalal, who will be present at both, says her goal with the visit is to bring forward the voices of girls who have faced silence and stigma—and yet rise when given a chance.
“I think there is so much power in this, and I hope to spark conversation which touches hearts. At Cannes I saw people who were so moved, they felt solutions could be so simple yet life changing. They wanted to be part of this change.”
Reaching girls across the Mara
Dalal’s work with PadMad addresses the often taboo topic of menstrual health as a key to education of girls. Some 65 percent of Kenyan women and girls are unable to afford sanitary pads (higher in rural areas like the Maasai Mara). As a result they often miss several days of school each month, resort to unsafe alternatives (such as leaves or elephant dung) and, most dangerously, engage in transactional sex for pads, leading to high rates of pregnancy and disease.
“This work comes from our deep, meaningful connection with people in the Mara,” said Uplift Co-Founder Kim Schneider (Suttons Bay). “We heard from so many of our friends and guides that this was perhaps the most pressing problem facing women and girls, and it is our core mission to come alongside projects like this one.”
Additional challenges in dealing with plastic waste exist in Kenya too, and PadMad’s work has diverted 77 million single use pads from landfills—and still counting—by providing reusable pads that last a women or girl up to six years.
The social enterprise tackles period poverty through a comprehensive approach. Disenfranchised Kenyan women, including prison inmates, both grow the cotton and sew the pads. Then PadMad trainers deliver comprehensive health messages to girls while distributing them with partner organizations such as Uplift.
The Leelanau-based nonprofit was founded by long-time travel writer Schneider and Dr. Tanja Wittrock (Leland), a veterinarian and full-time biology professor at NMC. Both avid travellers and long-time board members of other international nonprofits, the two have joined together as an arm of Glen Arbor native Paul Sutherland’s Utopia Foundation. The goal, like that of the Utopia Foundation, is to offer sustainable solutions to rural villages but with the added element of trips that connect travelers with villagers in an authentic, tangible and joy-filled way.
Dalal knows the project is working—both from survey results and first-hand visits. Each year, on International Menstrual Health Day, she visits the same village in the Samburu region of Kenya. Her first visit, she found pregnancy rates exceptionally high because so many girls were forced to have sex for pads. Each visit, then-so-shy girls have been getting louder, prouder and more confident.
“This year I was so overwhelmed when the boys had composed and were performing a song called “Red” about how beautiful menstruation is,” Dalal said. “Girls recited poems proudly in front of the male elders and teachers, and our school surveys show 100 percent attendance after receiving the pad kits. My bigger dream is bold: To eradicate period poverty in this generation… Period.”
Dalal’s October visit will strengthen the growing partnership with PadMad, Uplift, NMC and other projects. In addition to her public appearances, Dalal will visit several college classes including social work, communications and biology. The college has also partnered with Uplift Travel to offer students across these departments a two-week trip to Kenya in May 2026 to gain firsthand experience with Kenyan women, culture and environmental conservation.
Jim Bensley, director of NMC’s International Services and Service Learning, says the visit—and the May trip—will inspire students to think about education as a tool for social change and global equity.
“The stark contrast between the resources available to our students and the challenges faced by young women in Kenya serves as a crucial lesson in empathy and global awareness,” he said. “It underscores the idea that a lack of something as simple as a feminine hygiene product can create a significant barrier to a girl’s ability to stay in school and receive a full education.”
For more information or to buy event tickets, visit: (Film screenings) TCiaf.com; (project and trip information:) uplifttravel.org; (winery event): brengmanfamilywines.com/product/uplift-mara-project.
