Wednesday, December 11, 2024
The Freeport-Merrick Rotary Club has joined hands with the Rotary Club of Kampala Kawempe, a city in Uganda, in an inspiring project to assist with issues of feminine hygiene.
This initiative — known as the Menstrual Poverty Fight Project — aims to empower young women in Uganda by providing them with the skills and materials to create reusable feminine hygiene products.
These sustainable products enable girls to stay in school rather than miss classes or drop out due to menstrual challenges.
Jordan Pecora, president of the Freeport-Merrick Rotary, said his club’s involvement in this project began through a connection with the Ugandan Rotary.
“One of our club members knows someone in Uganda, and they (wrote us) a project proposal,” Pecora said. “We help support them with money and funds and different ideas to help make the project better … to help produce reusable female hygiene products so girls can go to school after they hit that age, so this way we can continue their education.”
The partnership has been impactful, Pecora said, adding, “we’re working with another Rotary club in Uganda to help have young women, young girls, be able to make their own reusable female hygiene products, so they can continue their schooling and not have to drop out of school, (and they can get) educated.”
The Freeport-Merrick Rotary contributed $2,000 to fund the project, which has allowed the Kampala Kawempe Rotary to organize training sessions in which local women learn to make reusable sanitary products.
By enabling them to create their own products, the project promotes sustainability and reduces dependence on disposable sanitary items.
In many parts of the East African country, girls miss school each month due to the lack of accessible menstrual products. As a result, they fall behind academically and often face social and economic setbacks.
“When a young woman (begins menstruating, she) will stop attending school because it’s embarrassing and in some ways shameful,” said Christopher McBride, Freeport-Merrick Rotary vice president who was the local Rotarian that the Ugandan club initially contacted. “So what families do is … tell their daughter to get married — marry her to an older man — or just stop attending school until her menstrual cycle passes, and then they’ll miss a lot of lessons and become disadvantaged.
“So (this project) allows them to discretely continue school, continue their studies with the aid of this menstrual pad,” McBride added.
McBride said the relationship with the Ugandan Rotary first took shape in 2005, when a Ugandan child was directed to the Freeport-Merrick Rotary from the United Children of Conflict Education Fund, to help him with his education.
“He went on to get a great job and start a school, which is now a top school in Uganda,” McBride said.
“It was that project which highlighted the needs of Uganda for me,” McBride added.
Eventually, through Facebook instant messaging, McBride became acquainted with Nsamba Henry, a member of the Kampala Kawempe Rotary.
“His club wanted to do this project, and it called for another club to help it with the funding,” McBride said. “So I told him, if he sent me a proposal, I would present it to my club. And he did, and I did.
“It needed some tweaking, and they came back to us with some adjustments … and then the club agreed to fund it.”
The Menstrual Poverty Fight Project has continued with the support of the Ugandan Rotary, which keeps Freeport-Merrick Rotary updated with progress reports and photos.
“This is a project that this Rotary club developed to utilize fabric to actually sew a mechanism that can be used and washed,” McBride said. “It’s not disposable — it’s sustainable — and sustainability is very important to anything Rotary does.”
The project has a far-reaching impact on the lives of young women in Uganda, because it not only provides them with menstrual products but also builds self-reliance and intra-community support, according to Freeport-Merrick Rotarians.
“The point of the Rotary mission is not just helping communities domestically, but it’s also internationally,” Pecora said. “And to show that the pillars of sustainability and education and to do everything the Rotary International can to support those two goals of sustainability and education.”
“The project struck me as important because thanks to this project, many young women will be able to continue their schooling,” McBride said.
The collaboration between the Freeport-Merrick and the Kampala Kawempe Rotary clubs demonstrates their global reach, underscoring the commitment to sustainable solutions and community empowerment, the Rotarians said.
