The SHARE Project

Throughout much of the developing world children struggle to receive adequate healthcare and education.  Due to poverty and disease, many girls of secondary school age are still enrolled in primary school creating a unique challenge to achieving the UN Millennium goal of universal primary education: when girls in rural areas begin to menstruate they often drop out of school entirely due to a lack of sanitary items.

Some girls rely on traditional methods such as dried cow dung to manage their period or share an old scrap of cloth between them. This raises a number of health issues such as a rise in infections and an increased risk of spreading diseases such as HIV, further disadvantaging girls towards a life of poverty.

The SHARE Project provides young women currently enrolled in primary or secondary school in rural communities with access to environmentally responsible, economically sustainable and culturally sensitive reusable fabric pads to help them achieve their dreams of educated, just and dignified lives. In addition local health workers and Kenya aid volunteers provide essential health classes and information to help ensure girls grow up with the knowledge they need to live healthy and happy lives.

Within the next two years Kenya Aid plans to make these pads widely available to any woman in the community via our established health clinic, as well as encourage local women's groups to begin making the pads for resale to surrounding clinics and schools.

How you can help

There are a number of ways you can help Kenya Aid keep young women healthy and in school.

Donate

For only $20 you can keep 3 girls in school for a year. Your donation goes towards providing each girl with 3 fabric pads plus access to essential health information provided by local trained nurses.

Donate goods

Making fabric pads means we need lots of fabric donors! It takes 2 metres of cotton flannel and one ordinary sized bath towel to make around 15 pads which helps 3 girls stay in school for a year. If you would prefer to donate goods rather than dollars please consider posting us any old bath towels or flannel fabric you have. Please send your package to:

'The SHARE Project'
PO Box 3124 East Blaxland
NSW, 2774
AUSTRALIA

Donate pads

If you know how to sew would love your help as a volunteer sewer! Simply contact us for a pattern and instructions and mail your pads to the above address when you're done.

Spread the word

Please help us spread the word by sharing the SHARE concept with your friends. If you would like your organisation or school to become involved please don't hesitate to contact us for more information. Simply email Verity at info@kenyaaid.org for details.