The Plan: Bringing Sanitary Pads to JWMS

Voices of African Mothers, the NGO that I’m working for here in West Africa, runs John William Montessori School. The school is a co-ed boarding and day school for students ranging between three-months old and 17 years old. With limited funding and a rapidly increasing population of students, the school is unable to fund the supply of sanitary pads needed for both its day and boarding students. Therefore, the majority of the female students at the school are without access to sanitary pads or the resources required to properly maintain healthy genital and sexual hygiene. It is my mission to change this. I want to see JWMS filled with bright, creative female students who never have to worry about missing school, not participating in activities, or leaving class due to their periods.

With nearly 200 female students of period age and 50 female students nearing puberty at the school, this project required extensive research in order to make sure that every student would be properly accounted for and that the sanitary pads would be obtained in the most financially and time efficient manner. I was given many suggestions from donors, friends, and family who have connections to or knowledge about this industry. I looked into purchasing machinery that would allow students to make pads, buying different brands of sanitary pads, purchasing Diva Cups, as well as hiring outside companies to ship reusable sanitary pads to the girls. I briefly considered getting tampons, but soon-after realized that cultural differences had to be accounted for since few in Ghana use tampons due to their invasive nature.

After about a week of 24/7 research, I happily settled on using the services of an organization entitled Days for Girls. Days for Girls creates reusable, washable, and sustainable sanitary pads for women that come in prepackaged kits. The kits are designed to last three to four years, or 36-48 menstrual cycles. In each kit, the girls will receive 2 super absorbent sanitary pads, 4 liners for extra coverage/ light periods, a cloth bag in which they can carry their feminine hygiene products, and a plastic ziploc baggy for transporting dirty sanitary pads. After use, the girls can simply soak, wash, rinse, and hang their products to dry. The fabric dries in a matter of hours so that they can be reused again the same day. My favorite thing about Days for Girls is that they use beautifully patterned cloth for all of their products, pad and bag alike. Their pads also do not look like traditional sanitary pads created by popular feminine hygiene brands. The appearances of the bag and sanitary pads are so critical in cultures where periods may still be stigmatized by local communities or be embarrassing for young girls. In a school where there are both boys and girls and the drying lines are extremely visible, having colorfully patterned pads that do not hold the typical shape of a sanitary pad allows young women to hang and dry their products without fear of any stigma that may have come with a public display of their period. Additionally, the organization provides comprehensive hygiene, sexual health, and product usage education in order to ensure that all using them know how to take care of and use the product, as well as themselves. In addition to this training, DfG may be hired to come and teach women how to make these sanitary pads in order to sustain themselves and teach others in the future. Teach a man to fish and you give him dinner for life, right? Lastly, and perhaps most significant, this organization has two offices in Ghana: one in Tamale and one in Accra. Being in Kumasi, a mere four hour drive from Accra, this proves extremely helpful as most other organizations I looked into only had one to two offices in all of Africa, almost none of which were in West Africa. If you would like to read more about what Days for Girls does, I will leave their website link here: https://www.daysforgirls.org/.

So, what is the plan? Voices of African Mothers will use the money from this campaign to hire Days for Girls to come to Kumasi and train 100 of our students, as well as our teachers, in how to make bag, liners, and sanitary pads on Thursday and Friday of next week. The girls being taught are our older female students and their teachers so that the girls may sustain themselves once their 4 year-supply runs out and they are no longer at the school. The teachers will be taught so that this may become either a part of the home economics curriculum or their sexual health curriculum. Either way, the plan is for the creation of these pads to be taught at the school by the teachers starting next year. This will ensure that the program continues on once I am no longer in Ghana. The students who learn to make these products will each make pad, a liner, and a bag, and will then be given the rest of the products that will complete the kit. They will also be given comprehensive sex and STI prevention/ treatment education, as well as sexual assault prevention and awareness education, and personal hygiene education. This will be a two-day long program due to the many things Days for Girls will be supplying to our students. Additionally, DfG will distribute 100 more DfG kits to the younger girls who have just began their periods and educate them on how to use the kits, as well as on personal hygiene. Finally, DfG will create and bring 50 additional kits to be given to the female students who will likely start their periods in the coming year. The majority of the money from the campaign will go towards paying for these 250 kits and hiring DfG representatives to train students for two days, including the trainers’ travel, accommodation, and supplies charges. Any leftover money will be used to purchase disposable pads in bulk to be placed in the nurse’s office for girls who unexpectedly get their periods either for the first time or during a new cycle while at school.

I will continue to update this blog as we get closer to next week, and especially following the training. Thank you again for donating, and for taking the time to understand where your money is going and how it is being used. Every day we become one step closer to ensuring the comprehensive and comfortable education for another young woman in Ghana. Today, you were the change and for that, the girls and I are eternally grateful.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at jenna.zitomer@hotmail.com.