An overlocking sewing machine, will enable the sewing team at the Diapalante Community Education Centre in Kaolack, Senegal to double their production of re-useable period packs. The packs are supplied to local schools for distribution to girls who currently experience difficulty attending school during their periods. Please help our team of volunteers to solve this problem for as many schoolgirls in Senegal as they can.
Period poverty is now a more widely recognised problem across the world. Each month 45% of the 800 girls attending the secondary school nearest to the Diapalante Community Education Centre in Kaolack, Senegal miss school due to inadequate protection during their periods (Sayers, 2022). This is very disruptive to the girls learning. The Diapalante Community Education Centre is working with the school to overcome this barrier to girls education.
Diapalante have designed and produced re-usable period packs which the girls find discrete and comfortable to use in school. The packs can be laundered without attracting unwanted attention. We now have a suitable product which girls are using happily and a small team of volunteers are sewing and making at the Centre. This appeal is to purchase 2 overlocking machines which are key to doubling production and improving the durability of the washable pads which form a major part of the pack.
The school has an entry of around 200 girls. This project's first aim is to ensure that none of these students are prevented from attending school by a lack of period products. The project volunteers see and understand the width and depth of this problem in the daily lives of their family members and the wider community. The team are determined to meet the initial goal of period protection for the 200 girls starting this secondary school annually, then expand their help school by school.
