Real Work. Real Impact.
GEMMA was created with a simple mission: to create opportunity, dignity, and lasting impact for women and girls in Uganda.
Today, we employ 16 Ugandan women who create reusable pads/ period kits for women in need. In areas where job opportunities are limited, these positions provide meaningful work, fair wages, and support for families and communities.
But the impact doesn’t stop there.
The kits these women create are distributed to women who may otherwise go without access to safe, reliable menstrual care — helping them stay in school, move through daily life with confidence, and experience greater dignity and support.
To us, GEMMA is a double blessing:
life-changing employment for the women who make the kits, and life-changing resources for the women and girls who receive them.
Every purchase, donation, and partnership helps create sustainable impact rooted directly within the local community.
Distribution
Distribution Day is always our favorite. At the end of each month, we pack up our period kits and head out to nearby communities in Kampala. We share messages of hope, sing songs, remind them that God cares about all the details of their lives, and then prove it…by giving them a life-changing period kit.
Our Story
Inspired by Gemma Galgani, an Italian mystic from the late 1800s, our name comes from a woman who knew intense suffering, yet remained deeply faithful to God and carried a profound love for the poor.
But there is more to the name.
When I moved to Uganda, I began to see something I couldn’t ignore. The women I met were so often overlooked-unseen, disregarded, passed by. And yet, like hidden gems, they carried a worth and value that could never be taken away, even if the world refused to recognize it.
I began noticing this up close when we hired our Nanny, Ruth, to help take care of our baby. It only took a couple weeks of having Ruth in our home for me to recognize that she had something great inside of her that wasn’t simply babysitting.
Through our friendship, we started meeting on Monday nights in Ruth’s community. We shared stories from our lives, faith, hopes and dreams. I heard a common thread of suffering and struggle that seemed to have no end. I heard prayers, asking God to change their situations.
Sometimes you hear prayers and realize that you can’t just wait around for someone else to answer them-you’re it.
As I listened, I realized it wasn’t a lack of talent or desire that held these women back, but simply a lack of opportunity. I became keenly aware that my own privilege in life came with great responsibility.
All of this collided into an idea.
We started small, with 16 Ugandan women, and began training in sewing, embroidery, and assembly.
Today, we sew reusable period kits and give them freely to girls and women in need, while also creating handmade goods.
It is joyful work. It has created life-changing jobs for women who have become dear friends. Gemma is double-sided because every kit we give has the power to change someone else’s life too. These are supplies often lacking, and as you can imagine, their absence can be life-altering.
We believe that anything done with love has the ability to change a life and, in its own way, to impact the world.
Our work is simple:
We create jobs. We sew period kits. We make goods. We use our creativity.
And with what we earn, we give back-blessing girls and women in need.
