About two years ago we became aware that many of the girls who have started their periods weren’t coming to school during that time of the month. I’m ashamed to say that this wasn’t something that had ever crossed my mind before. I’ve been fortunate to always have access to pads since I first started my own period. This is a serious issue around the world, something so basic yet many of us haven’t thought twice about.
I got a bit of a wake up call when we first started talking about this. We started asking questions. We started realising that some girls were missing nearly a quarter of their education because of this. We found out that girls were using old rags, rough cleaning materials, the insides of old discarded mattresses and even tree bark when they had their periods. We heard stories of girls in pain because of using these materials. We saw the shame when they told us stories of when they had risked going to school and were embarrassed because they had leaked through onto their school uniform.
As a team, we felt we needed to address this issue. When you hear that girls are using bark and dirty old mattresses to manage their periods, well, it’s time to do something about that.
To meet the immediate need, we received donations of sanitary pads for the schools, so the girls and teachers would have access to something should they need it at school. But we knew this was a temporary solution and we wanted to meet the need both at school and at home. We did some research and felt we should explore making reusable sanitary pads.
So for the last 18 months or so we’ve been buying different reusable sanitary pads, making our own, testing different materials, testing different designs, getting feedback and then going through the whole process again and again. Earlier this year we finally felt like we’d come up with a good design that works for the girls and women in the communities we work with.
A few weeks ago we met with the older girls and their females carers at each of the schools to introduce the pads. The response was overwhelming. The girls and women were all so grateful that we were talking about this and address this huge issue. As I stood in front of a room full of girls and women in the Kawama community I wondered to what lengths these females have gone to to manage their periods. What good news this is to hear there is another option!
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| Girls and women ordering pad packs |
We have started giving the girls their packs but we will be busy sewing for the next couple of months to fulfil all of the orders. After that we will start to provide these packs for the teachers and then for women in the community.
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| A Greater Joy student receiving her pad pack |
It costs about £10 for us to make one pack. If cared for properly these pads should last at least two years.
We’d love your help in providing these for as many girls and women and possible in the communities we work with. We’ve recently put these packs as an alternative gift on our website, please would you consider helping us give this life transforming gift to as many girls and women as possible?
Click here (http://www.beyondourselves.co.uk/donate/alternative-gifts/item/3/53/reusable-sanitary-pad-pack/?a=sl) to visit our website and to buy a pack (or two or three!) for girls and women here in Zambia.
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