I am just getting news about the
sanitary pad project. Many of you know that 30% of the girls in Uganda
drop out of school when they begin having their period. Sanitary pads
cost one dollar and ten cents for 10 pads. The average person makes 1 to
2 dollars a day. Pads cost too much. And the girls either stay home
during their period or have accidents with blood leaking through their
cloths. And so many just leave school. When our moms in Kampala
started to sew, they decided to sew washable sanitary pads for a school with
300 girls. They sewed 1800 pads last fall. Today they handed them
out. The delay was due to the long Christmas vacation.
4 of the MOPS moms from
Kampala went to hand out pads and to teach the girls how to use them and how to
wash them. Unfortunately the school has grown since last year. And
the number of girls has grown. So instead of each girl getting 6 pads,
they all only got 3. The need is overwhelming. I guess the workshop
will need to do some more sewing.
These girls at this school walk
miles to reach school and then walk back to their home When they go back
home they still have a challenge of walking miles collecting water which is
also one of the reason for teenage pregnancy. Girls are getting raped at
the well. We want to investigate building water wells near the
school.
The schools have no running water so it is the children's responsibility to collect water miles away for the school to cook their porridge.
The need for pads are causing girls to get
pregnant at an early age. Some girls sleep with village men for
pads. Sometimes girls ask for lifts because of the long distance from home
to school. It is a hard life. Many of the moms in Kampala
understand this too well.
Many of these girls live on one meal
a day.
The teachers have requested a
workshop on how to make pads. Maybe we should donate a few sewing
machines to this school as well?
As an NGO Suubi Teen MOPS is required by the government
to eventually open at least 6 groups in 6
different districts of Uganda. This is a 10 year goal of our NGO.
And one thing Sylvia thinks we should do for this school is provide a school
bus to protect these girls. It is nothing we can afford to do now.
But it is a dream. And they need prayer.
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