Jenny Burr
Spur Ottawa Correspondent

Sanitary kits are bridging the gaps in education for girls in developing countries. Missing days of school each month is not a situation which many female students in Ottawa face. In developing countries, however, it is part of life as girls reach puberty because they rarely have sanitary products. For days each month, they have to remain at home waiting for their cycle to end.

A team at The Bridge Church provide a solution. Nancy Robertson, Rosalyn Tegano, and their team (called Bridges for Girls) make reusable sanitary product kits, which they give to people taking mission trips to developing countries.

“When girls in developing countries reach puberty and have no supplies,” Robertson shares. “They can’t keep up and [end up] dropping out of school in their early and pre-teen years, sometimes having babies as young as 11 years old. By supplying them with these kits they can stay in school, possibly go on to secondary education, and have some choices as to where their lives are heading.”

Robertson and Tegano first learned about the kits when Tegano’s husband planned a mission trip to Haiti. A friend of theirs asked if she could send a bunch of the kits along with Tegano’s husband.

The reusable sanitary products in their various stages of development. Photo courtesy of Bridges for Girls.

“They made room,” says Robertson, “and the kits were a huge hit in Haiti.” When the two heard that the kits were well received, they realized that this was something God was calling them to do.

Each kit is contained within a drawstring bag which the team makes. Kit contains eight reusable sanitary products, a bar of soap, two pairs of underwear, two large Ziploc freezer bags for washing and storing soiled pads, a couple of clothes pins, and safety pins.

However, it is not only young girls impacted by the need for sanitary products. When Laurie Frost Scheer, who attends Kanata Baptist Church, travelled to Rwanda for a mission trip, she packed similar kits which a team from her church had sewn. In her case, the kits were given to women, including a number of single moms.

“We tend to think of younger women in these scenarios,” Scheer explains, “but these kits are equally important to older women, allowing them to not miss work days or to continue going about daily chores.”

“I remember the fun they all had ‘strutting about’ with their new kits that camouflaged as any new purse or shopping bag. Who would know otherwise?” says Laurie Frost Scheer, reflecting on a mission trip in Rwanda. Photo by Laurie Frost Scheer.

Scheer points to a photo of a young mother in a Congolese Refugee camp and says, “She was chosen to speak on behalf of the recipients to say thank you to us. She was a strong speaker and she spoke to her peers about being appreciative and for them to grasp the opportunity these kits offer; from freedom of movement, to the financial savings over the three years that the kits will last if they are cared for.”

Bridging the gap for girls and women in developing countries is vital. Reusable sanitary products provide them with the ability to move forward in their education, employment, and life. It is a simple solution which yields tremendous results.