We love to hear good news stories during the lockdown and this one was shared with us by Dr Pearce as part of his own “Year 9 – Good News” weekly email.

By Carmen H, Year 9

“During lockdown I have been volunteering for a local charity called Days For Girls. Many of my neighbours and my mum are active members of the charity so I really wanted to help and I thought it would be perfect for my Lived Well Challenge.  Days for Girls which educates girls in developing countries about hygiene, menstruation, reproduction, self-defence and human trafficking. The charity has been running for 12 years and has reached two million girls in 144 different countries.

More importantly these schoolgirls do not have any access to menstrual kits and have to miss many days off school and suffer such stigma whilst sitting on rags or coconut husks.

My neighbours create re-useable hygiene kits for the girls by hand sewing liners and bags and putting together hygiene kits which we rely heavily on donations of knickers, fabric, travel soaps and flannels. Each kit should last one schoolgirl a minimum of three years. As the West London team for this charity we have already provided more than 1000 kits to school girls in under developed countries.

My involvement has been measuring out each pair of knickers and then folding and rolling them to be packed into the kits. This week I have made great progress, measuring more than 300 knickers.

I chose this charity as my mum and close neighbours have been involved in this for the last seven years and have now produced 1,400 kits and the next batch of 300 kits are set to go to Gondar rural Ethiopia -a network of girls clubs set up to encourage girls to stay in school – the kits are an essential part of that support.

These schoolgirls have to stay at home up to a week a month sitting on leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, cardboard, and basically anything they can find to help them get through this time every month. Not only is it unhygienic but so undignified for a young girl.  Imagine a young girl or woman going through her monthly period without the necessary sanitary products….

I feel really strongly that we need to help these girls and provide the same opportunities that we take for granted and so I now measure the knickers and roll them ready to be packed into the kits.

One day I would really love to travel to one of these developing countries and deliver these kits to these girls myself as some of the ladies in the group have done. It would be so fulfilling to meet these girls and hear their stories.”

To find out more about the West London team, please see their Facebook page here. They rely on donations of 100% cotton fabrics, flannels, small travel soaps so any help would be gratefully received. Thank you!