If girls can stay in education, they can make informed choices and take control of their own futures. They can iMprove their circumstances and break the cycle of poverty, supporting themselves, their families and communities.

However, many girls are forced to miss school or drop out altogether when they have their period, because their schools don’t have the safe WASH facilities they need.

In Naza’s home country of Iran, the schools in the deprived areas of Sistan & Balouchestan province are mostly small and mixed, with inadequate sanitary facilities for girls. Alongside this, the province is struggling with the effects of climate change.

Severe drought has drastically affected the standards of living, and exposed the community to natural disasters such as floods. Schools in this area are highly vulnerable and are often at risk of losing the basic WASH facilities they have. Girls are the first to be taken out of class when this happens, and many never return.

Naza is determined that girls in Iran should have the chance to attend school safely, and have access to the facilities they need.

She is supporting UNICEF and the Department of Education in the construction and rehabilitation of resilient WASH facilities in twenty schools, in the most deprived and drought & flood prone areas of the Sistan & Balouchestan province. The project will ensure that the school children have safe, clean drinking water and the gender-appropriate facilities they need to continue their education.

Photography: یونیسف ایران/صالحی | UNICEF Iran | UNICEF/Salehi