Some time ago a member of our club Ros Kelly (presently serving a term as our District 9630 Governor) convinced the club to fund raise for Annerley branch of Days for Girls. We raised $1,000.00 and paid this to the organisation this year. We recently invited Sharon Fagerlund from the annerley branch to up date us on how the money is being used.
Days for Girls is a world wide organisation which increases access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating social enterprises, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigmas and limitations for women and girls. It began in 2008 when Founder and CEO Celeste Mergens was working with a family foundation in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya where she began assisting an orphanage. In the wake of historic post-election violence, the population at the orphanage had swelled from 400 children to 1,400. As she was getting prepared to return to Nairobi, Celeste went to bed with the devastating situation weighing heavy on her mind. In the middle of the night, she woke up with a nagging question: “What are girls doing for feminine hygiene?” Seeking an answer, she ran to the computer and sent an email to the Assistant Director of the orphanage.
He replied right away, “Nothing. They wait in their rooms.”
Celeste learned that girls were sitting on cardboard for several days each month, often going without food unless someone would bring it to them. This set in motion her first intervention – disposable pads. But Celeste and her team quickly discovered a major problem – without any place to dispose of the pads, this was neither a viable nor a sustainable solution. this resulted in the development of a washable, long-lasting pad. Kits including pads and educational material are disbursed by the organisation at a village level. With extensive feedback and the kits were designed to meet unique cultural and environmental conditions in communities throughout the world. It is remarkable the difference hygiene solutions have made in assisting women and girls to break the cycle of poverty and live lives of dignity.
For the rest of the story go to https://www.daysforgirls.org
Sharon brought with here one of the Kits and explained how they are made and the education that accompanies the delivery of the kits. She also explained how the men of the village are also being educated to understand the natural occurance of a monthly menstrual period, the menstral cycle, its purpose and why this occurs to break down the taboos around menstration. We informed Sharon of an up coming presentation on a Birthing clinic In PNG and invited her to attend.
The presentation supported our decision to assist this organisation and to look at partnering further with it in the future.
