Petal Pads for the Girls

Last night, it was extremely cold here in Zomba, and we experienced a huge downpour of rain. It sounded like thunder on the tin roof of my room. I snuggled under my warm blanket in the room and enjoyed it from inside. I thought about how blessed I was to have good shelter and blankets for warmth, while most people in Malawi were likely cold and finding it difficult for sufficient shelter from the rain. I thought about the children from our village and how they would be cold in school today. Today, we did our usual school day, and the kids were there with blankets if they had them. We then walked over to the Domasi Government School to work with 50 girls on a sewing project. Girls in Malawi often drop out of school when they reach puberty. The bathroom facilities make it difficult to manage, so they miss school during their menstrual cycles. When they miss school, they get behind, and it creates a cycle of struggle to catch up, which often leads to dropping out of school. We worked with the 50 girls to sew what we're calling "Petal Pads". These are hand sewn pads for them to use during their cycles, which can be stuffed with lining and then washed and reused. Each girl is being given enough material to make three petal pads, which should get them through their cycles each month. Two of the travelers with us had already cut the material by a pattern, had the needles and thread ready, as well as safety pins all in ziplock bags for each girl. The Radford and VT students did a fabulous job leading their groups of girls, modeling for them, and guiding them along the way. The school girls were giggly, just as our girls are at home over such things, but they enjoyed the time to talk and interact as they did their sewing. We know that having these pads will make a huge difference in their ability to access to education on a regular basis and hopefully alleviate some drop-outs along the way.