Washable Sanitary Wear For Girls
Many girls especially in a Moslem area miss many days each month away from School when menstruating. Some of this is Cultural but much of it is because Sanitary pads cost a lot of money. Disposable sanitary towels costs 900 Kenyan Shillings for 8 pads. This is £6 in our money. Obviously, this is at a cost of around £12 to £20 a month and impossible for poor people to buy.
A daily wage is between £1 to £2 a day for unskilled labour.
After attending a course run by 'Days for Girls' where washable sanitary wear was made and a bag of various items were put together as a kit. I decided to adapt this for our pupils.
I did not want to take out lots of kits as the project has to be sustainable and I wanted the girls to own the project. I did however take out , as a one off, lots of cut out items and I taught 6 groups of 10 pupils and one adult group how to make the shields and pads. The patterns can be found on the web site of 'Days for girls.'
Below are some photos of the project.
Cut out materiel Cutting out waterproof layer Girls assembling 3 layers and pockets
Cut out Plastic lining, cotton lining, and Girls using the sewing machines Teacher Elizabeth helping the girls sew
brushed cotton squares Horbury and Ossett Rotary Club bought 3 sewing machines for the School
Filling the bags with
2 pairs of pants, a wash cloth, 2 sealed polythene bags, 2 shields and 3 brushed cotton liners
2016 Rosemary ran 3 women's groups with the help of Dilys and a teacher Elizabeth
The idea is that women make these items for themselves and to sell. The limiting factor is that the women really need sewing machines that cost £80
