Stichting Oneheartmalawi

5 days 2 hours ago

“Knowledge is power, I have this skill for the rest of my life. I never thought I would achieve this in my life.”

“This is a scarce opportunity. I left everything, because I can’t miss this class.”

These are two quotes of the members of the Mother Group who were taught how to use the sewing machines to make sanitary towels at the project land of OneHeartMalawi as part of the ‘Fight against Period Poverty’ project.

Short recap:

-In August volunteer Linda visited four schools in different villages in Mangochi, Malawi to teach women how to make reusable sanitary towels by hand. These women are part of the Mother Groups and support young girls through motivation and role modelling. These Mother Groups will spread this knowledge in their villages;
-At the OneHeartMalawi vocational training centre our female welding students, tailoring students and female cook were taught how to make reusable sanitary towels;
-All fifty women got care packs. Each contains the sewing pattern and instruction leaflet (translated to Chichewa), three pairs of underwear, disposable sanitary pads, soap, tooth brush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap and a small towel.

How did the fight against period poverty project continue in Malawi?

-Four sewing machines were donated to the four schools that were visited so the women can make the reusable sanitary towels with a machine as well as by hand;
-From each Mother Group, three members were taught how to use the sewing machines by our sewing teacher Biswick Kabambe, assisted by three of our tailoring students at the project land. The students were very happy to share what they have learnt the last few months and to teach others. The twelve women are spreading their knowledge at the four different schools and their area;
-Biswick Kabambe will continue teaching the sewing students at the land to optimize the quality of the sanitary towels so they can be sold for a reasonable, low price. This way we can continue to buy new material to make more sanitary towels and ensure more and more women can get access to it;
-Linda left part of the necessary material to make the sanitary towels but there is only limited space in a suitcase. Fortunately, we will ship more materials in the container that will go from the Netherlands to Malawi end of this year.

Thank you so much for the donations of material that we received. With these we can continue the project and women don’t have to stay home during their menstruation period, which will empower them in their education and future careers. 💚