Our Global Impact Report 2012-13 identified 39 Soroptimist "Projects of Excellence" around the world, as a source of education and inspiration. In the coming weeks, we will be featuring many of these projects on the SoroptiVoice blog.
This week, Irene Hockin, a Past-President of SI Barnstaple and District (UK), writes about "Knickers for Knowledge", a partnership with SI Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, to prevent girls missing out on school during menstruation. Commending this project, SI’s International Programme Directors described the project as: "a very simple idea that has real effect helping young
girls to attend school – absolutely what our Educate Empower Enable
focus is all about".
Image: school girls in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
The project was born out of our Club looking at how best
to address the Soroptimist International long-term theme, ‘Education and
Leadership’, which had been launched at the 2010 Montreal Convention. Research by members resulted in our decision to
concentrate on the access to education of girls in Africa, through our
Friendship Link Club since 1982, SI Bulawayo (Zimbabwe).
We learned that, for girls, school attendance dropped by
four days a month during menstruation, equating to a loss of 156 learning days
through high school years.
The lack of privacy offered by the communal toilets and
unreliable water supplies played a part in the girls’ non-attendance of school,
but inadequate sanitary protection seemed to be the main barrier to constant education
and full participation in class, during menstruation. The protection being used included rags, newspaper,
leaves and cow dung, often resulting in accidental leaks which led to girls
being teased, and with the only option for those with no access to these materials
being to remain at home for the duration of their cycle.
Members’ first thoughts were to research the possibility
of sending knickers to SI Bulawayo for distribution, but this was then
considered to be, perhaps, culturally inappropriate, and following the results
of a questionnaire completed by SI Bulawayo when a member of our Club visited
them, monetary support for the purchase of sanitary wear was considered the
easiest and most secure option.
A strapline ‘Knickers for Knowledge’ had been suggested
by a member, and following the Club’s agreement to adopt this, we had it
protected by copyright, as we did the logo on a leaflet that we had produced.The leaflet detailed the project and how we intended to
fund our revised plan, which was to collect textiles and to sell them for
recycling.
Image: the first SI Barnstaple textiles collection – 910kg of items that were sold to a recycling company, raising funds for Knickers for Knowledge
The public and other Soroptimist clubs have been so
generous that we are now in a position to help further and, whilst purchasing
and distributing the sanitary protection to schools in and around the Bulawayo
area, SI Bulawayo members have been researching other, longer-term options. Two machines, specific to the production of sanitary
towels, have been identified in India, with one of these using wood pulp and
the other cotton. The second is the preferred option, as cotton can then be
purchased from a women’s co-operative in Bulawayo, thus affording them a
regular income.
Community leaders have agreed to rent suitable premises
to SI Bulawayo, with the possibility of purchasing this in the future, and the
machine, once in position, will be run by twelve HIV positive women, four at a
time, working four shifts each day. When not working, the women will become ‘mentor mothers’,
educating other women in their community in
health and hygiene, and they will also become trained in management
skills.
Members of SI Bulawayo have estimated the monthly
production number of the sanitary towels, plus administration costs and,
working on their estimated wholesale and retail selling price, are certain that
they will be making a profit. A member of SI Bulawayo is making plans to travel to
India, self-funded, to ensure that the chosen machine is fit for purpose before
we purchase it and the carriage of it is arranged.
We will continue with the project for the foreseeable
future, as we feel humble that we, as a group, can make such a difference to
women and girls by helping to Educate, Empower and Enable them to make changes
to their lives.
Involving the public has raised our profile locally, and
the benefits of the project far outweigh the effort put in, which mostly
involves the collecting of goods and its storage, awaiting its sale.
With such generosity being shown, both by way of
donations and of textiles, the need for transparency is of paramount importance
and we are in the process of being governed by a Small Charity Constitution,
with the whole Club being ‘members’ and with some individual members becoming
Trustees.
We are pleased that we are able to work on the project as
Soroptimists with Soroptimists, but have learned not to be precious about the
project and plans for its future, although we aim to protect and to manage it
to the best of our ability.
Knickers for Knowlege – Project of Excellence
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