Days for Girls

Some of the 100 colorful, completed kits that will soon leave for Malawi. 

Several years ago when I was living with mom and dad in South Mississippi I heard about an organization called Days For Girls (daysforgirls.org )which provides reusable, cloth pads for women and girls in in third world countries. In these places our sisters miss school and work for about five days out of each month because they do not have proper feminine hygiene available to them. 

A first world fix for this problem using collected disposable items is not a solution because there are not sanitation disposal agencies available. Days For Girls was born out of this need creating an organization of volunteers around the globe who stitch reusable pads and who put together kits with a fabric drawstring bag, soap, underwear and the cloth pads. Girls are able to carry these kits with them to school and in turn do not have to spend upwards of 60 days a year sitting on pieces on cardboard in their rooms, or in dirt holes behind their villages. 

The kit contains reusable pads made from colorful fabrics and provide a safe and environmentally friendly alternative to using cardboard or foam like in the baggie on the right. 

Because they are able to attend school regularly they are more likely to graduate and become contributing members of society who can have pride and confidence in who they are as women. 

This last weekend we were able to bring a service project to BGC where one of the local chapters of Days For Girls led by Ms. Jean Kreutzer came out and taught our girls about the problem and the solution that they were able to be a part of. We had worked with a small group of our College and Career girls before the end of last year but on Saturday we had a group of about 30 women and girls from our cottages on our main campus who were also able to help. The girls learned a basic sewing and surging technique to help make the bags, they packed underwear, opened soap and sorted items that go in the kits. It was so neat to see girls of all ages from our college kids down to our youngest who are about seven years old helping with this effort. 

Everyone had a great time and we plan to do it again in the near future as an ongoing project to help girls around the world. 

On Saturday we were able to help put together 100 kits that will be taken at the end of this month to a place called Pothawira Village (Pothawira.org) in Malawi. I did the math and if each kit provides on average 5 days of school per girl, 12 months a year thats 60 days a year. 100 kits means 6,000 days, and when you consider each kit lasts about three years
that mean 18,000 days that our girls were able to give back to other girls around the world. 

Pray with us over the kits that will be departing soon. Pray for the precious little hands on this campus who put them together. Pray for mighty things to be accomplished in those 18,000 days. 

Special thanks to the cottages who participated, to Mr. Scott McKenzie for getting such great pics, to Ms. Cris Anderson for the surger she donated that we will continue to use for this purpose as we partner with Days For Girls in the weeks to come and to the Chuck Scianna family who gave our girls the money for the project that is proving to be life changing both for the girls we are working for and for us.