A small group of women in the tight-knit community of Bulga are helping to provide sustainable feminine hygiene solutions to over 640,000 women and girls in over 100 countries.
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They have been meeting every Monday in a small but cozy shed at the recreational grounds and diligently creating Days for Girls Kits.
The plan is to assemble fifty of this life-changing kits and the driving force behind the effort is 17-year-old local resident Lua Roser.
She first came across the initiative in 2016 while attending Linuwel School at East Maitland and thought it would be a great way of supporting a cause that “makes sense” while bringing together her embattled community.
“Bulga is still alive and we are doing things,” she says.
For the past seven years many local residents have been consumed with a David and Goliath battle against mining giant Rio Tinto.
They have been fighting to stop the company expanding their Mount Thorley Warkworth open-cut mine operation.
This is because if the fully-approved plan comes into existence they have no doubt their historic village will be uninhabitable.
Lua says about seven ladies have been turning up to sew and have a chat, including her grandmother Shirley.
“My Aunty, Heidi Kolatchew, has also been very supportive as she put the call out for new underwear on facebook and we have received plenty of donations,” she explains.
“We would also like to thank the wider community for supporting our raffle, donating material, and the Wallsend United Church for contributing $200.”
Shirley explains this came about because of her association with the church – she now resides in Wallsend.
The entire venture has actually turned out to be quite a family affair with her brother offering up his sewing machine for use, and another aunt, Kim Barry, lending the group an overlocker.
Lua is also grateful for the assistance received from the Days for Girls Newcastle Chapter.
How Days for Girls all started?
Days for Girls began in 2008 when Founder and CEO Celeste Mergens was working with a family foundation in Kenya when she began assisting an orphanage in the outskirts of Nairobi. In the wake of historic post-election violence, the population at the orphanage had swelled from 400 children to 1400.
As she was getting prepared to return to Nairobi, Celeste went to bed with the devastating situation weighing heavy on her mind. In the middle of the night she woke up with a nagging question: “What are girls doing for feminine hygiene?” She ran to the computer and sent an email to the Assistant Director of the orphanage.
He replied right away. “Nothing. They wait in their rooms.”
Celeste learned that girls were sitting on cardboard for several days each month, often going without food unless someone would bring it to them. This set in motion her first intervention - disposable pads. But Celeste and her team quickly discovered a major problem - without any place to dispose of the pads, this was not a viable or sustainable solution. It was time for plan B: a washable, long lasting pad.