Hands-on project aiming to end period poverty for all
Today Year 10 girls volunteered at York Minster to participate in a community workshop organised by Yorkits – an engaging project with the aim of bringing volunteers together to construct washable, easy to use, feminine hygiene kits for girls in developing countries.
In many underdeveloped countries, due to poverty and shame surrounding the topic of menstruation, many girls are left without access to suitable feminine hygiene provision and are unable to attend school during this time. With the help of volunteers, like our Year 10 pupils, the charity aims to help them by providing access to products and allowing them continued, uninterrupted schooling as a result.
Using practical, low cost and reusable materials, Yorkits has devised a solution in the form of a feminine hygiene kit. Consisting of cleverly designed pads and covers, combined with underwear, a washcloth and two one-gallon, super-strong polythene zip-locked bags to enable items to be washed easily – particularly important in areas where clean water is scarce, the kits are then packaged into a handy drawstring bag made from attractive and colourful fabric.
By providing easy access to free hygiene products, girls can enjoy uninterrupted schooling, much like their male counterparts can.
Held in the beautiful surroundings of York Minster, the workshop saw a vibrant mix of school children and volunteers of all generations and backgrounds come together over a cup of tea and biscuits to make a real difference in the lives of others and make a positive step towards ending period poverty.
“We’ve come down York Minster to help make sanitary products for people in Africa who do not have the money to afford them like we very luckily do. We are making pads that are extremely useful because you can wash them. We have loads of different stations, from cutting out materials, stitching materials, ironing and then there is a bag to be made to put them in. It’s an amazing project and we’re helping loads of people.” – Alice
“We are all at different stations making these sanitary products that can be sent around the world to girls who do not have them or access them because of how expensive they are. Making these kits can add 210 extra school days because usually if girls are on their periods, they miss school because they don’t have the right equipment so I think that it’s nice that we can help make them for them and we are doing something to make a change.” – Berlin
“The reason this workshop is important, and this whole project is important is because the western paradigm of periods and menstruation is very different to reality in developing countries in the third world and what’s happening here is by raising people’s awareness of what happens culturally to young ladies in those countries where I believe they are shunned from their society for the period of their menstruation that they are unable to go to school because they are believed to be unclean and as a result, what we are doing here, building and making these feminine hygiene kits it gives them the ability to maintain their education and also the ability to maintain their self-esteem.” – Andrew, Yorkits Volunteer