By Lee Koelzer | Director
Having your period in the village is an inconvenience to say the least.
Most rural women cannot afford the luxury of disposable pads, so they resort to stuffing their knickers with old rags, dried grass, and even rubbish they pick from the roadside. This is inefficient and unhygienic. Young girls have an even harder problem because if they are in school all day they are constantly worried about leaking and odor. Life is hard enough as a teenage girl, and the added threat of embarrassment is enough to prompt the girls to play hooky from school during their periods. This causes them miss about five days of classes per month and as a result, their grades drop.
To help combat this, we in partnership with VGIF have been working on an initiative to teach our ladies and beneficiaries to make and use their own re-usable menstrual pads. Yes- this sounds kinda gross, but with proper care the pads are clean, hygenic, and FAR superior to stuffing your knickers with grass!
We brought in our own councelor, trainers, and training materials. Each woman was taught to make 2 of the reusable pads, and we also sold pre-made pads to the ladies at a subsidized rate of half the cost of making the pads to encourage their use.
It was a fun day filled with laughter, gossip, and chatting about other 'women's issues." It's wonderful when we can intigrate ourselves deeper into the community with a healthy mix of education and laughter.
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