Washable Pads
Why Washable Pads?
In impoverished communities worldwide women and girls are missing school or work due to their periods. Disposable pads are expensive and inaccessible to those who are struggling to provide food for their families. Some women and girls resort to using leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, rocks ... anything they can find. Using these items puts them at risk for infection. Worse, girls are often exploited by men in exchange for money to buy sanitary supplies. And when there is nothing to use, they remain home, sitting on a rag for the duration of their period.
Dignity4Girls promotes access to quality washable feminine pads by providing templates, instructions and materials to international women enabling them to sew the Confidence and Comfort Pad (CCPad).. We also partner with Days for Girls International U.S. sewing teams to send their kits to our international partners. Washable pads allow girls and women to attend school and work while menstruating. If well cared for, these pads can provide several years of protection. Access to washable pads has proven to reduce school absenteeism, dropout rates, and even early pregnancies.
The Grace Community Center's Kenyan sewing team began in 2016 and has created over 3,000 washable pads. Women in Liberia were recently trained and a team of college students in Bangladesh are about to begin sewing the CCPad for local Dakha slum residents. Each sewing team is inspired to bring hope to the many vulnerable girls currently in need of a solution for their menstrual needs.
Just $10 can fund a sewing team to help a girl keep her educational dreams alive!
CLICK HERE to help international sewing teams provide for local girls.
D4G continues to make new connections in countries like South Sudan, Zambia, the Congo, and South Africa,
Scroll down to learn about and see photos from our ministry partners in Kenya and Liberia
Want to sew washable pads?
Click below to find a sewing group in your area or contact Dignity4Girls for more information.
Partners who Sew & Distribute pads
KENYA
The skilled ladies of Kisii, led by seamstress Glaldys, have their own established sewing team and have sewn over 3000 washable pads for their community.
These trained seamstresses distribute to schools and churches while presenting special health education. The team has reached over 20 schools 35 churches, and three special girls schools for the deaf.
Liberia
Liberia
Over the past several years Dignity4Girls has help facilitate the shipment of over 10,000 U.S. sewn Days for Girls kits to the Liberian Children's Ministry of Liberia, west Africa. They have blessed girls at 15 rural schools overseen by Director Joe Boway. Joe was born in the jungles of Liberia and as a child came to Christ through a missionary family. Due to civil wars, Joe and many others ended up in refugee camps.
For 14 years civil war prevented most schools from operating; as a result, today more than half of the adults in Liberia are illiterate. Joe, who now lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with his wife and sons, created the Liberian Children's Ministry as a way to educate children in the jungle regions. Joe now oversees 15 schools and over 6,500 students!
In March of 2024 a team consisting of several skilled sewists from Elmhurst, Illinois, traveled to Liberia to train a group of 22 Liberian women to sew washable pads. These women will provide pads for present and future girls at four of the Liberian Children's Ministries schools. Dignity4Girls is excited to see the Liberian women take on this endeavor and provide for their own school girls.
South Sudan
Confident Children out of Conflict Orphanage
Dignity4Girls partners with Kenneth Elisapana and the Confident Children out of Conflict orphanage to provide staff and adolescent girls with washable pads.
Photos from Kenya and Liberia
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