Treated as a shameful sin, every day thousands of young women miss school and work and are shunned by their community for their bodies’ natural cycle.
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“A lot of women in those countries, it’s a taboo topic, and they end up in a hut 100 metres from the village, sitting on cardboard,” Beverly Walls said.
“When the girls are in their menstruation cycle, they don’t go to school. They don’t go to work. So they’re missing one week in three. They’re missing out on their education.”
The Inverell community has been invited to help reclaim those lost days by participating in a project which provides healthy, reusable menstrual products and education for girls all over the world.
Helmed by Ms Walls and Julie Clendinning, a new local Days for Girls team is now in training, and locals can learn more by coming along to a public meeting at the Inverell Shire Library from 2-3pm on Saturday, February 2.
Days for Girls creates kits filled with underwear, wash cloths, cycle calendars and reusable sanitary pads and shields. Meeting attendees will see videos of an Armidale team at work making the items.
The kits are distributed alongside a menstrual education program to teach the girls about their cycle, how to use the sanitary items, and combating the stigma surrounding periods.
“It deals with cultural beliefs and understandings and trying to break down that this is a natural process. Children are the product of this cycle, so it should be not frowned upon and hidden away,” Ms Walls said.
Coming from an education background, she had seen first hand the result of girls in various countries missing out on school because of their period.
“I know as a teacher that it’s hard to catch up, especially when you’re getting in to those high school years. You can’t afford to be having a week off every four weeks.”
The local group are hoping to make at least 150 kits to be taken to New Guinea later in the year, where Ms Walls will conduct the training program at a school with around 300 girls.
Ms Clendinning is busy making the first Inverell kit which, once approved, will act as quality control for future locally made kits. The kits have evolved over the past 10 years based on feedback from the recipients.
Although sewers will be essential, there will be plenty of other jobs for non-sewing volunteers, including drawing and cutting patterns, ironing and washing the fabric, donating material and fundraising.
Anyone is welcome to come along to the February 2 meeting. To learn more, call Ms Walls on 0427 251 627 or email beverlywalls39@gmail.com.
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