Due to the lack of necessary hygienic products, women and girls are unfortunately stuck using cow dung, ashes, leaves, newspapers, used socks, old mattress cuttings, or rags during their menstrual cycle. These crude materials are not only ineffective but also unhygienic and uncomfortable.

 

They also force girls and women to suffer the indignity of it all.

 

In Eastern Congo, teenage girls are either forced to endure this humiliation or be absent from school. For the brave girls who want to remain in school regardless of their menstrual struggle, many girls confess to facing the stigma that comes from unhygienic menstrual hygiene management, the odor of improperly managed menstrual blood, or shocking stories of how they did not know what to do during their first menstrual period. For those that would rather not suffer the possible public humiliation, girls miss up to 4.5 million learning days per month in Congo due to menstruation. Moreover, this situation is worsened by the lack of information on menstrual matters as well as a deep culture of taboos, myths, and misconceptions surrounding menstruation and menstrual blood.

 

The Ntibonera Foundation is passionate about educating girls and women and helping provide the means necessary to sustain them as they live their lives.

 

The Ntibonera Foundation is launching the “Safepad Project”! This project will allow us to not only donate the items needed to create Safepad Kits, will include products that are more environmentally friendly, and sustainable because they are built to last for three to four years. It will also educate girls and women about using the products and maintaining better hygiene for their overall health and livelihood. This will keep girls in school and the entire project will be done through employing women in Congo! Educating, sustaining, and creating jobs all at once!

 

Each Safe Pads Kit will include:

 

- Two shields

- Eight absorbent, wash-and-reuse liners

- Two pairs of undergarments

- Washcloths

- Anti-bacterial soap

- Clothespins

- Washable cinch bag

- Airtight, plastic bag

- Pictorial instruction sheet

 

SAFE PAD project will be implemented by " Ntibonera Foundation, a registered 501c3 tax-exempt charitable organization.

Your support will enable the foundation to purchase the sewing machines and all the things required to launch the project. We have a location set up for the project and production.

 

Please consider how you can help make a big difference, by sewing a small seed into something that highly impacts our sisters around the world. And how you can share this link with all of your friends, family, and community.

 

www.ntibonerafoundation.org