………as more girls are educated on the product
BY FIONA MOTSA
MBABANE-The ‘Days for Girls’ (DfG) Pad is a washable, reusable, beautiful menstrual health product that is built to last.
‘Days for Girls’ Eswatini is a non-profit organisation whose goal is to make sure girls around the world can go to school every day. The creation of these pads has emanated from the need and lack of young women as well as taking care of the environment.
The Days for Girls international is headquartered in Mount Vernon, Washington.
An Enterprise Program to help local women establish social enterprises to make and distribute kits in their own countries was launched in 2012. A group 10 amazing volunteers, each one from a different community, sewing reusable feminine hygiene products and travelling around educating and distributing the packages in different communities with destitute girls in Eswatini.
“Menstrual health is a basic need and the goal is to reach every girl everywhere with sustainable menstrual hygiene products and menstrual education. Girls are now being educated about these sustainable pads from the ages of 9-12 because they are more open to suggestions and will accept having other options and make a choice for themselves than the older girls,” said Xoliswa Gumbi, a Volunteer and Women’s Health Ambassador.
“The overall response to these pads is that absentee rates have dropped from 30 per cent to 3 per cent after girls received more kits.
“The lockdown pushed women to choose between necessities but because of saving money every month from using DfG, they have been able to cater for other necessities and there have been more women receiving the kits. The dignity pack/ kit comes with soap, under wears, a period tracker and DfG pads, which is everything a girl should have for free because periods are not a choice”, said Gumbi.
