MICAELA ABOODY
International organisation Days for Girls is helping stop girls in remote communities and developing countries from taking days off school during menstruation by providing them with reusable sanitary items.
The not-for-profit organisation has been creating reusable sanitary kits for girls in developing countries since 2008.
The idea came from organisation founder Celeste Mergens, who visited an orphanage in Uganda in 2008 and realised girls were taking days off school because of menstruation.
Days for Girls volunteers work from a space provided by Gateway Baptist Church in the Brisbane suburb of Mackenzie.
Team leaders Di Fisher and Glennie Bull have been organising the group of volunteers for five years.
Ms Bull said the kits contained soap, a washer, underwear and fabric made pads, which are made to be used multiple times.
“They [the kits] are given to the girls [and] that enables them to stay at school,” she said
Days for Girls also send kits to remote Aboriginal communities in Australia, where sanitary products can be more expensive than they are in cities.
“Recently we did send some kits to girls in the Northern Territory and I found that a packet of pads is $18,” Ms Bull said.
She said thousands of volunteers all over the world contributed to the organisation by sewing bags and fabric panty liners, as well as helping to pack the kits.
To find out more about Days for Girls, watch the video report below or visit their website.