A project for girls in Somalia's displaced people's camps to make
sanitary pads is helping to keep many girls in school and to provide
an income for them
By IRIN [http://www.irinnews.org/" title="], part of the Guardian
development network [http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/
series/guardian-development-network" title="]
Thursday November 3 2011
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/nov/03/somalia-girls-sanitary-pads-project
After dropping out of school in the sixth grade to help her mother,
Fartun Abdi Hashi, 22, was given a second chance at earning an income
with a sanitary pads project.
Hashi's family arrived at the Doro camp for the internally displaced
in Galkayo, central Somalia, when she was 12. She enrolled at the
Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD) after
dropping out of school in 2006 to help provide for her siblings.
"I first trained as a tailor and was very good at it. Later, I was
selected as one of the girls to make the pads and underwear to go with
it," Hashi said. "I was not doing much before I started making the
pads - I was lucky to get employed, and I am now one of the girls
producing the most pads. I get a monthly salary of $150, which I use
to support my family. I never dreamt that I would make such money
without this [project]."
Besides Hashi, the 60 girls - aged between 16 and 22 - who work on the
project at GECPD make on average 20 to 30 pads per day.
At least 800 girls are educated at the GECPD, and on any given day
around 60 have their period, which earlier forced many to miss classes
or drop out all together because of a lack of sanitary pads, according
to Hawa Yusuf Ahmed, the programme co-ordinator.
Some girls used paper and leaves to make crude pads, which did not
work well.
With support from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the UN children's fund
(Unicef), and other partners, GECPD started the pads project in 2009
to help keep the girls in school during their periods and to provide
an income for them.
"We started this project to show the girls that they can manage their
periods and make sure they don't miss classes or drop out," Ahmed
said.
The project also provides a livelihood for the girls who stopped their
education because they were too poor to continue or felt they were too
old to sit with younger girls and needed to help their families.
Many of the girls come from families that fled violence in south-
central Somalia, while others are from poor families in the host
community.
The pads project has not only transformed the livelihoods of its
employees, it has also made available sanitary pads for tens of
thousands of internally displaced people living in settlements across
Galkayo town. "Residents of 21 IDP camps supported by UNHCR receive
the pads, while Unicef sponsors the distribution of pads to local
schools," Ahmed said.
Bureqo Ali, 17, an IDP from the southern port city of Kismayo, is one
of the girls employed at the pads project. "For many of us this was a
godsend," she said. "I would not be working or going to school if it
was not for this project."
Ali is now back in school and is helping with the household expenses.
"My mother does not have to kill herself to provide for us. I can now
contribute."
Ahmed said most of the material that goes into making the pads is
locally sourced. "We do bring some material from outside, but almost
everything is sourced here," she said.
On average, the project makes at least 1,400 packages a day - each
with six sanitary pads and two pairs of underwear. "By 2012, we will
have produced around 50,000 packages," Ahmed.
She said the pads were a lot less costly than the imported ones. "Ours
retail for half the price and have the added advantage of coming with
two [pairs of] underwear and can be washed."
Ali said her life and that of other girls in displaced camps as well
as the poor ones in schools using the pads had changed for the better.
"Previously, many of girls were too embarrassed to admit they had
their period and would not come to school or work; those days are
over," she said. "We are wearing them and making a living out of it.
It is a wonderful feeling."
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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