The Days for Girls is an International movement that was incorporated in 2008 in the USA for women and girls to have access to hygiene and health education.
Motto: Every girl, Everywhere, Period
(typical DFG kit) https://www.daysforgirls.org/
During a visit to a local Junior school in Okurase I was informed that many of the girls had missed school days during their menstrual period, because of lack of or no sanitary pads to use. They did not want to attend school because of embarrassment. We were also informed that girls tended to use alternative items in place of sanitary pads. This was very upsetting to hear and once back in the UK a few of us discussed ways to which we could assist. We did initially seek to make our own from watching Utube videos – but that did not materialise. I checked online and came across several initiatives in Uganda and USA that supplied handmade reusable sanitary pads for girls. Because most of our donations between end 2015 – Aug 2017 was used to install some of the electric in the classroom. It was decided that this year 2018 would be used for the girls hygiene.
I chose the Days for Girls initiative to obtain sanitary kits for the girls as I was happy to know that there was a DFT office and production team in Ghana that administered and makes the kits. There were many types of kits to choose from depending on content and extra usable hygiene items – such as soap.
The Calabash Hub chose the standard kit costing 30 cedi per kit. The Kit contained: Cycle chart, 2 shields, 8 liners, packing bag, drawstring bag. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the contents. But they came in a nice bag made of African or printed material.
Before the girls can use the kits DFG insist on a training session delivered by ambassadors or a teacher. There is a 2hr online course to undertake in order to deliver the appropriate session based on how to use the kits and hygiene methods. This was explained to the school headmaster.
The girls seemed a bit shy when i was explaining what was in the drawstring bags.
Follow-ups will be made to the headmaster and teachers in regards to DFG kit training and bag distribution. Please check your country for DFG kit office and distribution.
Bless Sister E