Learning is interrupted, lessons missed and chances of doing well at school are reduced for many Malawian girls because of limited access to resources to manage periods.
Wezia is the project manager leading the sanitary pads project in Malawi, funded in part by your pledges. She has been hard at work with two mothers, who have now been trained to make the reusable pads. Wezia talked to a group of senior girls about the effect of menstruation on their education. This is what the girls had to say.
'These girls said that they don't have enough sanitary materials such pants and pads (they use small pieces of cloths/fabric because they can't afford buying pads).'
'On average they all have a maximum of 3 pants and 4 pieces of fabric. When I ask them on how this affects their studies they said they don't stay comfortably in class because the fabric that they use does not take much time to get wet and the chances of messing themselves are very high hence they loss concentration when the teacher is teaching. And again they said they feel much safer staying at home when doing period because they can change, wash and dry than at school where they don't have a changing room. Again on average they do their periods in 3 to 5 days.'
The difference that it will make when given washable pads is that it will help them to be attending classes all the times and they will help them to be concentrating in class because will be much better than the fabric that they use right now. They also mentioned that on comfortably since I showed them the pads it has buttons and easy to use and they can participate in every activity as group work and sports without any fear that it will fall down as it happens with the fabric when it is small and on properly placed.'
Four girl students are acting as ambassadors for the project, to encourage their classmates to start using the reusable sanitary pads which Her Education Matters is funding.
We are delighted to have raised £2,000 so far through crowdfunding for this vital project. We still have over £300 of match funding available, and our partners African Vision Malawi have more schools lined up ready to join the project. With match funding, a pledge of £30 could enable 10 girls to access the project.