Broughton’s local craft group that meet Thursday fortnightly at the Salvation Army have been very busy and have put a collection of beautiful quilts together. The quilts are on display at Lowana in Nhill. Lowana is open Monday through to Friday and Saturday mornings. The quilts have been made from mostly donated fabric and are available to purchase with all proceeds going to the local Days for Girls group.
Days for Girls is an organisation that makes handmade feminine hygiene kits. The organisation was founded in 2008 by environmental educator Celeste Mergens. Back in the U.S. after working at an orphanage in Kenya, she realised she’d never asked what products the girls used when they had their periods and was stunned to hear the answer: “Nothing. They wait in their rooms.” She soon realised that girls around the world were missing up to a week of school each month and eventually dropping out, and that women were not able to feed their families because they were missing work, all because of a lack of feminine hygiene products. “Having a basic biological function becomes a devastating handicap,” says Celeste.
Celeste was scheduled to return to the orphanage and she and a group of volunteers started stitching. “Some sewed until their fingertips bled,” says Celeste, but in three weeks they’d stitched reusable pads for all 500 girls. Using input from the girls, Days for Girls (DFG) has honed their designs: each girl now receives a kit containing a colourful cloth drawstring bag that contains 2 pairs of panties, two moisture barrier shields, eight tri-fold pads, two zippered plastic bags, a washcloth, soap, and an instruction sheet. The kits are distributed through organisations like Rotary, and health, educational and church groups. They’ve been distributed on six continents in more than 70 countries. 1,000,000 kits have been delivered. 1,000,000 girls’ lives changed forever.
Top quality quilting cottons and flannelettes are important for DFG items: they hold up to repeated washings (kits will last up to three years). Patterned fabrics are most useful, and Celeste notes that often these kits are the only thing a girl owns and that like girls everywhere, they appreciate bright, pretty fabrics. It’s easy to imagine the smiles these beautiful kits will bring to girls’ faces.
And the need, of course, is ongoing. As DFG founder Celeste Mergens notes, whenever a family has to choose between buying food or buying feminine hygiene products, food always wins. Celeste admits that she never imagined she’d spend her days talking to people about menstruation. But she also never imagined that something so simple could provide dignity and help break the cycle of poverty for girls and women worldwide. “We all deserve to have what we need for our basic biological functions, and if we don’t it affects how we feel about ourselves,” she says. “These pieces of fabric literally transform lives and help women and girls say ‘I have value.’”
Each kit costs $15 to make. Just $15 gives a girl her own sustainable feminine hygiene kit. Giving her days back to attend school to get an education, days back to attend work to earn an income. It turns out this issue is a surprising but instrumental key to social change for women all over the world. The poverty cycle can be broken when girls stay in school.
On a local level, the Broughton group has packed 10,000 kits over 10 years. Women continue to sew and come together to pack the kits. The next packing day will be Thursday 11th April at the Broughton Salvation Army. The group start at 10am and packing probably finished by lunch but you can bring your lunch and help with making more kit components. You are most welcome to come and go whenever it suits you. Can’t sew, doesn’t matter, there are plenty of jobs for you.
If you would like to get involved or help in any way, please contact Joy Wheaton ph 53929264 or Jenny Smith ph 0429920251.
For more information about Days for Girls, visit their website www.daysforgirls.org.
So put it in your diary to pop into Lowana to check out the magnificent quilt display. Well done girls.
This article appeared in the Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 10 April 2024.
