SEAMSTRESSES are working hard to tackle period poverty in Ghana.
Dressability and Action Through Enterprise, have teamed up to give girls and women hygienic, reusable and lasting products for their period.
Leela Shanti is the programmes and development manager of ATE.
She said: “We’ve been working in a small rural area in the upper west of Ghana.
“It’s incredibly neglected and the work we’re doing is creating opportunities for children and adults. We have three flagship programmes, one is to educate, small business development, and special needs awareness programme.
“We’ve been aware through the pandemic of the disproportionate impact on girls and women when it comes to attending school. Sanitary pads are a luxury item, and the families we work with really struggle to send girls to school because they can’t afford them.
“Some of our workshops revealed that girls there have very little understanding as to why they menstruate, it’s considered shameful and they’re not supported with the sanitary items they need.”
Executive CEO Sarah Gardner said: “With Dressability we found ourselves with a brilliant opportunity to make a significant difference, and we relish doing just that.”
Dressability – based in Westmead Drive – will be using unused material to make the sanitary pads. These will be trialled by some of the girls in Ghana before they are distributed to all of the students.
The charity is asking people to donate unused, clean, towels to make the sustainable project possible.
Dressability manager Sharon Tombs said: “It’s a time to spread good will, our volunteers are very keen in doing projects that make a difference, and I think this will.
“It depends on how many donations we receive on how many we can make and how many girls and women we can help.
“It would be lovely if there’s a shop out there that has stock that we can have, that would make a huge difference.
“It’s such a good project, we’ve done a lot for the local community but not anything internationally. I know the charity Action Through Enterprise and I heard about what they were doing, I thought it would be good to do something different and we got in touch.”
If you’d like to help Dressability get involved with projects like these, please do leave a donation today – you can make a difference…
