Oregon Young Mother of the Year 2012: Every Girl. Everyday. Period.

https://www.daysforgirls.org/

What if not having sanitary supplies kept you isolated during menstruation? DAYS without school. DAYS without income. No leaving your room... for DAYS. It happens worldwide to women in impoverished communities. Girls miss up to 3 months of school in just 1 year. Girls use leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, rocks, anything they can find... all to try to stay in school. Worse, girls are often exploited in exchange for hygiene. It turns out this issue is one of the keys to social change. It's hard to imagine, but true for women all over the world.

When a girl has access to feminine hygiene she can change her world:

*She is more likely to stay in school

*She has more confidence

*She has more health knowledge

*She will speak up for herself and others

*Her future income will be greater and so will her country's GNP

*She will contribute to her community

*Her children and peers are more likely to do so as well.

This is why DFG matters

This is the kit we created

For my Young Mother service project, I joined with the team at Days for Girls (DFG) to create feminine hygiene kits. It's a simple step that makes a big difference. I presented this idea to my friends Melanie and Bekah. (They both have amazing sewing talents and did much of the difficult work.) We organized several different service events with the teenage young women from our church and their mothers and wonderful leaders.

We created about 100 sanitary napkins, 30 carry bags, and 10 complete kits. The items were shipped to our local DFG chapter where they can be distributed to 22 different nations in third world countries. Volunteers will deliver these supplies to women in needy communities and train others to teach about health, hygiene and how to make their own supplies.

The most rewarding part of the project for me was watching the young women grasp the significance of the service they were giving. The thoughts of struggling through each period without the help of sanitary supplies opened their eyes to a harsher world and they left with a new-found appreciation of some things we usually take for granted. They also realized that they were changing the world one girl at a time.