THREE locals, Marie Oakley, Sue Pauline and David Gallan, travelled to Timor Leste from May 10-17 as part of the Days for Girls project in partnership with Bega Valley Advocates for Timor Leste (BVATL).
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The project aims to provide girls with sustainable feminine hygiene kits so they are able to continue school attendance even when disposable pads are not available or affordable in their communities.
Experience around the world has shown that many girls fail to complete school as a result of poor attendance during menstruation and so Days for Girls International formed to assist girls by sewing washable, re-usable products and distributing them to underprivileged communities.
BVATL supported the days for Girls team in Bega to take kits to its friendship group in Natabora, Timor Leste.
As well as receiving kits, the secondary school girls are given a talk on menstrual health and hygiene.
On this trip Ms Pauline also had the opportunity to teach local women's sewing groups to make the items so as to create a business plan and become self-sufficient.
Over the week, the group delivered health and hygiene information to close to 200 girls and presented 90 of the older girls with their kits.
The girls and their teachers responded with overwhelming enthusiasm.
The older girls were particularly vocal in their support, expressing that now they will not miss school three days a month.
They were also grateful for the education as no-one had ever talked to them previously about menstruation.
The Natabora schools were all provided with educational material in the local language, Tetum, in order to continue with this education.
The program will continue to distribute kits to the younger girls through BVATL and Rotary teams in coming months.
Ms Pauline prepared detailed workbooks to instruct the sewing groups in the steps to construct their own items.
Working mostly with treadle machines, these ladies succeeded in producing the shields and liners for the kits.
They were provided with enough materials to get started in the expectation that they will be soon able to market the items in their communities.
The group also had meetings with the students at Baccau Teachers College who are able to continue their education through the scholarship scheme supported by BVATL.
Mr Gallan met with community and school leaders and Cristal Institute to monitor and encourage teacher professional development.
