Girls Glory - Improve Menstrual Health in India

Dear Friends,

It has been a tremendous month for the Girls Glory project, as we officially launched the programme in schools, and met with inspirational individuals who are making their mark! Here is what we have been up to over the last 3 months...

Girls Glory has its Official Launch!

A significant day for the Girl’s Glory project, we are pleased to report that on Saturday, July 12^th we officially launched the Girl’s Glory Project in our partnered schools! The event was held in our Higher Primary school, Vijinapura, with thanks to the Headmistress and teachers there. We welcomed many special guests, including School officials – the MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly), BEO (Block Education Officer), our friends from our partnered corporations and Rotary Club as well as our Chairman and Trustees. We would like to add a special thanks to the teachers, volunteers and our staff who coordinated the event successfully! It was a fun morning, filled with some traditional dances and short plays from the children, speeches and the first ever distribution to our girls, led by the MLA! More than 500 children were present and of which 200 young girls from 16 different schools got the sanitary napkins for the first time. The children were joyous and so are we.

Gaining Inspiration from an “Unlikely Crusader”

We had the pleasure of meeting Arunachalam - Who was recently voted as one of ‘The 100 Most Influential People’ 2014 by TIME - http://time.com/70861/arunachalam-muruganantham-2014-time-100/

Arunachalam is now famed across the world for creating a cheap and easy to use machine that makes sanitary napkins at very lost cost. In the beginning, he was simply trying to help his wife, who was using old and dirty rags to manage her monthly periods. Soon he realised many women faced this dilemma, as commercial napkins were too high in cost for many in the community. His venture was not easy, and Arunachalam shared with us his amazing story, where he faced separation from his wife, disowned from his mother and ostracised by his community. Through all of his struggles, he now supplies machines to rural communities, employing local women and providing sanitary wear to millions of women in India, parts of Africa and South America!

We are still working towards a machine of Arunachalam so that we can provide local women an income in manufacturing the napkins as well as supply our girls in our partnered Government Schools. If you would like to support us in this venture, where we can sustainably supply napkins, and reach out to 25,000 girls in need, please donate to this project today!

A Sponsored Swim in Support of Girls Glory!

We are greatly encouraged by Ruth for supporting this project by setting up a fundraiser for her 10K swim (the aquatic equivalence of a marathon!) along the River Dart in Devon, U.K. Ruth is taking part in the Dart 10K on Sunday 14^th September. Ruth has been braving the waves and waters come rain or shine over the last 6 months in preparation for the challenge! We wish Ruth all the very best for her swim and braving the cold waters. A huge THANK YOU to Ruth, her family, friends and those who have already contributed towards her challenge!

If you would like to show your support for Ruth and her efforts, as well as our Girl’s in need of sanitary education and hygiene, please do sponsor her swim by following the link below -

http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/fundraisers/9649/

If you are feeling inspired by Ruth’s efforts, why not challenge yourself and raise money for a good cause? Fundraisers are a fantastic way to get involved in something good, and are very easy to set up with the help of the Global Giving platform. Please do contact us for ideas, fundraising advice or participation in our upcoming fundraising events. You can reach out to emilyparkes@reachinghand.org

Coming Up….

We are fast approaching Daan Utsav (formerly known as the Joy of Giving Week) which takes place every year in the first week of October. Daan Utsav is India's "festival of giving"! Launched in 2009, the festival is celebrated every year, in the week including Gandhi Jayanti, (October 2-8), and brings together Indians from all walks of life, to celebrate "giving". It is a celebration of people giving their time, money, resources and skills back to society through volunteering, donating and fundraising.

Reaching Hand is taking part in several events and activities during Daan Utsav, including ‘Under the Stars’ on Wednesday the 1^st October bring in the festivities! Under the Stars is happening for the second time in India and is an event that invites people to take up the challenge of sleeping rough for a night without shelter in the city. This is in support of, and to raise awareness for those who face homelessness across India.

We are also looking forward to holding our first ever Reach Inter-Corporate Charity Olympics on Saturday the 11^th October. After such a great response to our 2 previous ‘Goals to Goodness’ football events, we are now adding an array of sports for participants to take part in, including, football, basketball, cricket, volleyball and throw ball!

Once again, a huge thank you to you all for encouraging us and supporting our children at Reaching Hand.

We urge you continue carrying that compassion and care for our children in need… together we can make huge changes in their lives and reach out to many more who need it!

Links:

• The Event in the Local Newspapers
• Like and Share our Page for regular updates and activities!

Dear Girl’s Glory supporter, 

We are delighted to share our latest activities from the last three months in this new project with you. First of all, THANK YOU for being a part of this project from the start! It is truly remarkable how far $10/£6 can go in making a difference to girls’ lives by creating awareness about sanitary hygiene, which in turn will benefit her health, education, and rights! 

The project is shaping well as we have been getting excellent support from our stakeholders in terms of their time, skill and resources. We have started this project couple of months ago but have been getting some incredible remarks & feedback from our well-wisher and volunteers. We are planning to start an online global campaign so that everybody is aware about the issue and take this movement forward. The aim of this project is to make sure that the girl children is regularly attending school with confidence and dignity and not dropping out because of their monthly cycle. 

School Year begins… 

The school year has begun and the planning for Menstrual Health sessions are well underway! The program will be delivered through an active network of trained community members and volunteers who give their time, skills and experiences. This will consist of one-hour sessions which will take place in the schools to girls of 6th Standard and above and each new year-group. The sessions will include; a short video, volunteers sharing own experiences, an engaging activity and an opportunity for students to ask questions. This will be followed by the distribution - where the girls will receive sanitary napkins and by which point, will have already been taught how to use them correctly. 

A Great Start! 

We have been busy spreading the word about Girls Glory and it has been met with fantastic response! A huge thank you to the Rotary Club Jeevanbima Nagar, Bangalore for sponsoring 750 packs of sanitary napkins – enough to support 32 girls for an entire year! We are now providing our New Home girls with these napkins also! 

We have also held several stalls at corporate companies, such as Unilever and HP, where we are spreading awareness of this issue and hope to engage many future volunteers! 

The Bangalore TCS 10K Marathon on the 18^th May was a huge success, and we would like to say a warm hearted thank you to all who sponsored a Care Champion or ICare runner! Of course a huge thank you to all our fundraisers for the event including Derek Dsouza, Patrick Pitchappa, D.V Krishnan, Ansh Jain, Kumar Raju, Suresh Joel, and Emily Parkes! This is always the biggest event of the year, and this time we were a strong team of over 150 volunteers who ran in the 10K, Majja run (5.7K) and Kingfisher (fancy dress) competition! They all ran to support our Girls Glory project that aims to impact more than 400 girls this year who are studying in the government schools. 

A Special Visit 

The Reaching Hand team made a very special exposure visit at the beginning of June to see the Hoskote factory (20km North East of Bangalore) where affordable sanitary napkins are made! We visited the Mythri factory and watched the process unfold before our eyes as the women were preparing the raw material to the final product! It takes approximately 2.5 minutes to make each sanitary napkin, a relatively quick process that involves three women working at a time. This small factory is able to support 17 women from the village with a stable income working part time.

We are raising funds for this machine so that we can manufacture the napkins locally, have enough capacity for growth, so that we may reach out to over 25,000 girls in the next 5 years, and provide employment for underprivileged women in our area! The estimated cost of one machine with raw material is more than 3.5 lacs ($6,000/ £3,500). 

Thank you once again for your kind support. Please follow us on Facebook for regular updates on Reaching Hand’s work - https://www.facebook.com/ReachingHand