Days for Girls NCJWA
Days for Girls at NCJWA NSW is a community ‘making project.’ Working together we create components that go into reusable sanitary care kits for girls and women in developing countries.
When access to menstrual pads is lacking school days are lost, and particularly in disadvantaged communities incomplete education means earlier pregnancy and more children – diminished opportunities in life.
The goal is to save those lost days. Enter Days for Girls.
Our Days for Girls activity began as a series of all-generation workshop days in our NCJW hall. When Covid struck we reconfigured it as a ‘dispersed network.’ Working busily in homes around town we have been able to maintain our cooperation and output. Our team of volunteers provides support for sewing, pinning, cutting, washing and folding. We call this the Make-At-Home Project. Of course, we look forward to regrouping at communal tables again but for the time being this is how we operate.
The work is collected and sent to the Days for Girls team in Ryde, the largest in the state, for assembly into kits. From there hundreds of kits are sent to East Timor, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Congo where they are distributed through school and church groups as well as Rotary International. There are currently moves to alleviate the rising ‘period poverty’ crisis here in Australia, where reduced work hours and lost jobs lost are having an impact on levels of sanitary care.
Days for Girls does not stop with handing out kits. Through local partnerships and social enterprises the organisation works to support menstrual health and reproductive education in places where the kits are distributed. This is a global grassroots network adept in mobilising volunteers to innovate sustainable solutions and dismantle the negative stigma that afflict so many young women.
If you would like to volunteer and have fun making something really useful please feel free to contact us at:
ncjwadfg@gmail.com
We are very appreciative of the exceptional support from the PINSHAW FAMILY FOUNDATION.
We are also very appreciative for WOOLLAHRA COUNCIL’S COMMUNITY and CULTURAL GRANTS PROGRAM for supporting the development of the Days for Girls at NCJWA NSW PROGRAM in 2020.
We have also been supported financially by our NCJWA NSW members and volunteers during our mycause campaign in June 2020. Our sincere thanks.
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