WUNRN
SOMALIA - PADS PROJECT PROVIDES
GIRLS WITH INCOME
& HYGIENE TO STAY IN SCHOOL
DURING MENSTRUATION
Pad-making at the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and
Development has provided a source of income for those who make them and helped
keep many girls in school - Photo: Abdi
Hassan/IRIN
GALKAYO, 1 November 2011 (IRIN) - After dropping out of
school in the sixth grade to help her mother, Fartun Abdi Hashi, 22, was given
a second chance at earning an income with a sanitary pads project.
Hashi's family arrived at the Doro camp for the internally displaced in
Galkayo, central
"I first trained as a tailor and was very good at it; later, I was
selected as one of the girls to make the pads and underwear to go with it,”
Hashi told IRIN. “I was not doing much before I started making the pads; I was
lucky to get employed and I am now one of the girls producing the most pads. I
get a monthly salary of [US]$150 which I use to support my family; I never
dreamt that I would make such money without this [project].”
Besides Hashi, the 60 girls - aged between 16 and 22 - who work on the project
at GECPD make on average 20 to 30 pads per day.
At least 800 girls are educated at the GECPD and on any given day, 50 to 60
girls have their period, which previously forced many to miss classes or drop
out altogether because of a lack of sanitary pads, according to Hawa Yusuf
Ahmed, the programme coordinator.
Some girls used paper and leaves to make crude pads which did not work well.
Livelihoods
With support from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and the UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF), and other partners GECPD started the pads project in 2009 to not only
help keep the girls in school during their periods but also provide an income
for them.
“We started this project to show the girls that they can manage their periods
and make sure they don’t miss classes or drop out,” Ahmed said.
The project also provides a livelihood means for the girls who stopped their
education because they were too poor to continue or felt they were too old to
sit with younger girls and needed to help their families.
Many of the girls come from families that fled violence in south-central
The pads project has not only transformed the livelihoods of its employees, it
has also made available sanitary pads for tens of thousands of IDPs living in
settlements across Galkayo town.
“Residents of 21 IDP camps supported by UNHCR receive the pads, while UNICEF
sponsors the distribution of pads to local schools,” Ahmed said.
Bureqo Ali, 17, is one of the girls
employed at the pads project |
Bureqo Ali, 17, an IDP from the southern port city of
Production on the rise
Ali is now back in school and is helping with the household expenses. “My
mother does not have to kill herself to provide for us. I can now contribute.”
Ahmed said most of the material that goes into making the pads is locally
sourced.
“We do bring some material from outside but almost everything is sourced
here," she said.
On average, the project makes at least 1,400 packages a day – each with six
sanitary pads and two pairs of underwear.
“By 2012, we will have produced around 50,000 packages,” Ahmed.
She said the pads were a lot less costly than the imported ones. “Ours retail
for half the price and have the added advantage of coming with two [pairs of]
underwear and can be washed.”
Ali said her life and that of other girls in displaced camps as well as the
poor ones in schools using the pads had changed for the better.
“Previously, many of girls were too embarrassed to admit they had their period
and would not come to school or work; those days are over,” she said. “We are
wearing them and making a living out of it. It is a wonderful feeling.”