Group sews pads for girls, women

National

By LARRY ANDREW
DAYS For Girls International (DFGI) is  leading the way to sew menstruation pads for women and girls who cannot afford to buy them from shops in Lae.
Ambassador for the organisation Wendy Christie said DFGI’s sustainable hygiene kits lasted for about three years and enabled young girls to continue going to school and women to work.
“How we got involve with the Brian Bell sewing team is through the branch manager Tony Incoll who allowed us to use the ladies to sew with us once a month. Most of the materials are brought in from New Zealand,” Christie said.
“Some of the kits have been sewn at Buimo prison by the women prisoners and we are hoping to sew 200 kits by January to take into the YWAM ship which then will be handed out in villages in Morobe.”
Christie said several kits were made and given to groups and they were hoping to make about 200, but it depended on sewing speed.
“We’ve been given a day once a month to sew with the Brian Bell ladies.  Apart from that, we go out to Buimo prison and there are only two of us at the moment sewing at home. We need more people who are  interested in helping us sew.”
Christie said the advantage of using the pad was that it was sustainable hygiene kit that women could use for their menstruation periods. The kits lasted for about three years and could be washed with water.
“It is just a total hygiene washable kit which is far better than any of the others.”
Incoll said Brian Bell was happy to get behind DFGI because a lot of PNG women could not afford hygiene products which were quite expensive in PNG.