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Published: July 19th 2016
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You know when you get to be a part of something special but then as you carry the activity out it really hits you how special it is? I had that feeling doing our first pads training day at Kihwa. I always was excited about this project, spearheaded by none other than Zed, but I don't think I really got how amazing I would feel being on this side of the project.
So this project started last year when Zed started up a billion sewing machines back in Canada (mine included) with a plea for us to make as many reusable pads as we could to send and donate to the women at Kihwa school. The sad story here is a lot of women do not have the resources to deal with the monthly visit of Aunt Flo and therefore have to stay at home and miss valuable school time. These reusable pads would help these women stay in school even during this monthly visit, so that they could pass their exams and head off to secondary school, and hopefully university for some. Kihwa is a small village about a 40 minute drive from Mbarara down dirt, poorly kept roads.
This village is fairly secluded with little resources around, and about 3/4 of the children do not even own shoes to walk to school in. It is women in these situations that need the help of the reusable pads the most.
We started out this day by picking up the beautiful Rose, who does sewing for this project here in Mbarara. Rose is a force to be reckoned with. She is the silent strong type that just amazes you with what she puts up with and does to make this project sustainable. She also probably has the best smile around if you can catch its quick glimpses. After packing back into the Rav4 like a bunch of sardines we headed out to Kihwa. Once there we were welcomed by hundreds of screaming children coming out of every nook and corner the school offered. I have recently learnt the kids here love fist bumping (thanks Jamie and Claire for that one) so I managed to fist bump my way to the staff lounge.
We started our time with the women of Kihwa school by saying our names, where we are from, our education, hobbies we have, and either sharing
a story as to why we are proud to be females or sharing the story of a Ugandan woman who stayed in school and is a role model in their country now. Everyone's introductions were so amazing and really set the tone for the whole day. It was so empowering hearing about Claire's educational background and the powerhouse female she is back home. One line that took the cake though was from Shafiq. He is a student here studying women and gender studies and is heading to Canada in August to further his education. He opened up his introduction by saying "I am who I am because I have a strong woman behind my back." Cue the tears or misty eyes from most of us. I think everyone just thought of their mom's back home, or the women that stood behind them as they were growing up. I certainly thought of my great mom and got a serious pang of home sickness.
Once all the feels were out then we moved onto our training day! We toured around asking the women to attach the pads to our demo undies, and putting in the reusable liners. Everyone by the end
of it was joking around with us but fully understood how to use the reusable liners and shields! We let Rose take over at this point and teach the women how to make more reusable liners. At the end of all of this we gave the women their own shield, and two reusable liners! Everyone was soooo excited and thankful. Seeing their faces light up and showing their friends the pattern on their shields made my heart so happy! I really really hope most of these women will stay in school and be the doctors, lawyers, nurses, and whatever else they want to be!
The awesome moment that capped our day off was lining all the women, who participated, for a photo and they all chanted over and over again "Knowledge Is Power!" Ah it was soooo great and just sent tingles up your spine. Hearing all those women chanting together was just the best way to end the day!
I am looking forward to our second Pads Training day next Monday and I know it will be just as awesome as the first!
Sending love from Africa (for only about 4 more
weeks, crazy!)!
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