Days for Girls

Girls were losing 2 weeks of school a month through domestic labour expectations and managing monthly cycles

DRE has been working for some time to implement a female fertility curriculum for young people attending the Youth Centre. Young women have been given and taught to use washable sanitary napkins and educated about female fertility. The girls who received a washable sanitary napkin kit were delighted to be relieved of the burden of finding suitable protection every month.

The kits were initially purchased from the charity, Days for Girls, a worldwide organisation of women making, transporting and teaching other women about the kits. Now the Albany Days for Girls group is kindly donating the kits to us.

A senior school student, who lives in a group home, was trained to teach girls to use the kits and to deliver the female fertility curriculum. This knowledge and additional kits were left in Addis to continue supporting and liberating girls.

It’s important for boys to be taught about fertility too, and boys at the Youth Centre often lack male role models. However, cultural sensitivities can be challenging to navigate at times, so DRE was delighted when a local, former teacher and now tour guide, Girum, from Escape Tours, volunteered to teach the boys the same material.

Washable sanitary pads allow girls to attend school

Women carry an unfair burden