NMC Partnership

It was an especially momentous week, as we only recently launched as a foundation. With your help, we raised more than $25,000 to support our shared vision to end period poverty and uplift the people of the Mara.

And now, as official partners of the Utopia Foundation 501c3 and headquartered in Traverse City, we are ready to take the step forward into capacity building and continue walking alongside our amazing project partners across the globe.

All funds raised go directly to provide sanitary pads, reproductive health education, clean water and sanitation facilities in Kenyan communities via a partnership between Kenyan organization PadMad and U.S. partner, the Michigan-based Uplift Travel (Utopia) Foundation.

May 2026 Kenya Trip This trip will take students and faculty from Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) to local villages and conservancies across Kenya and in the Maasai Mara, on one of three experience tracks: 1) communications, use of journalism and photography skills to help capture voices of those most often unheard; 2) social work, learning firsthand about cultural stigma and work to address period poverty; and 3) biology, as we witness and discuss creative solutions to h