The availability of safe hygiene products is often taken for granted. But in many parts of the developing world these products can be hard to access - often meaning that girls resort to making their own hygiene products with whatever is locally available.
As with such developing countries, girls from resource-poor settings in Bangladesh have limited awareness and access to the good quality, safe sanitary products that they need. Combined with a sense of embarrassment, this can lead to many girls missing school during their periods.
Because of this, the Rotary Club of Dhaka in Bangladesh has started to distribute hygiene kits to the rural and urban poor in a 'hygiene kit' distribution project under the umbrella of its ‘safe sanitation’ activities. For a number of years the Club has been running a very successful sleeping kit distribution programme in which mosquito nets, bedding and other essential items are distributed to underprivileged children.
The hygiene kits are distributed to girls in partnership with another charity and the assistance of local schools. Each kit bag contains a washable sanitary cover and liners, a bar of soap, a washcloth, a resealable polythene bag and two pairs of panties. The Club has carried out a number of distributions, most recently to the Rohingya in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Our Club has agreed to donate £300 to support the project (which it also supported back in 2017). Our funds will be used to cover the cost of the hygiene kits at 4 Euros each. This means we will be covering the cost of around 90 kits.
We hope to give you an update later in the year after the distribution has been carried out.
For more information about the Rotary Club of Dhaka: http://www.rcdhaka.org/
Picture: A hygiene kit bag and its contents. Picture Credit: Rafiqul Islam Rowly/Rotary Clubs of Dhaka & Canterbury