Re-usable Menstruation Pads
We first met Mina who works for Karma Flights, in 2018 when a couple of the trustees were helping out at one of the health camps at Arnakot. Mina was passionate about raising money for free pads for schoolgirls in the district of Nisikhola. She worked closely with community nurses and teachers to promote and deliver education around menstrual and sexual health. In a country where there are lots of taboos around this subject and the practice in some areas is to ban them from the home during the time they are menstruating, this can be a very sensitive subject.
Girls with no means in which to manage their periods, frequently miss out on education. Little or no education means in turn that they miss out on life choices and there is less likelihood that they will be able to break the cycle of poverty.
Over several years, we purchased over 2,000 kits of reusable pads from ‘Days for Girls’ (DfG), an international charitable organisation. The money for these pads was funded by a grant we received from the Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity along with local fundraising for which we are extremely grateful. Each kit bag contains sufficient washable pads to last an individual for approximately three years and costs around £10.
We have constantly been looking at ways to make this project sustainable. Now, thanks to a very generous donation from Neil White and family, we have been able to finally take this project to the next stage.
In 2025, six women attended training by a local DfG trainer on how to make the kits of pads. The training along with sewing machines, fabrics etc have all been paid for by Neil White and family.
One seamstress, Sapana, is based at Arnakot and has set up her sewing station in the waiting area of the health post. This is attracting a lot of positive interest from the local women. Her close proximity to the health post and to the local school means that she is ideally placed to make this a real community led project.
The other seamstresses are based in Pokhara and are working as a team.
Each kit contains two base layers, eight pads, one waterproof pouch, two pairs of pants, a flannel, a bar of soap, a chart for monitoring the menstrual cycle and a drawstring bag to hold everything.
If you are able to support a young girl in rural Nepal by donating £10 via Just Giving, that would be absolutely wonderful. Please leave a message on the Justgiving page to say if you wish your donation to be earmarked for the pads appeal.
