“Girls with Pride and Dignity” was found in April 2016 by Miss Kana Josee Bizimana who lives in Manchester/ England.

One day she called her friend Mary who lives in Uganda, because she wanted to know how she was doing for a catch up after few years without communicating to each other.

That day, Josee found out that Mary's daughter had not been able to go to school because she couldn't afford to buy some sanitary pads to use during her monthly period.

That situation gave a lot of courage and inspiration to Miss Josee to start thinking how she could help young girls who are less fortunate to provide for their feminine sanitary products and help them for not missing school.

Miss Kana Josee Bizimana (Known as Josee) is originally from Burundi, born and raised in Rwanda, Dutch by citizenship. She lived in ten countries, including: seven of African and three of European. One of Josee's worst memories of her past, is when she was living in DR Congo as a refugee back in 1995 where she experienced the lack of Sanitary Pads during her monthly period. Those memories contributed to thinking about starting the organisation “GPD Foundation”. “It wasn't easy to use a part of a cloth in a warm country of 40 degrees and spend more than 6 hours in school without changing it” Said Josee. “The biggest embarrassment is the bad odour caused by the hot temperature, and you can't feel comfortable to go to school” she added. Josee now believes that the idea of giving back to those who are less fortunate, will benefit to many girls and women across the globe, especially keeping girls in school and helping single mothers to be financially stable and become useful to the society and in the communities where they live.

This is what the Founder said:

This is what the Founder said: As an EU citizen living in England, getting a job wasn’t easy for me! When the idea of starting GPD Foundation came into my mind, I was living on a low income and as a single mum with two children, it was a big challenge for me to manage saving some money to support girls who miss school because of lack of sanitary pads. So, I came up with an idea which would help me to manage saving some money to buy sanitary pads and help girls who miss school during their monthly period. I had to give up doing what I enjoyed doing most, and I stopped buying more shoes and going to the nail’s salon. With that decision, I managed to save some money and I would buy 10 packets of pads a week! I was on a low income myself, but at least I knew that I was more privileged than those who are less fortunate. I did it out of kindness and love, which cost me nothing but a big heart!