The 100% Project

Dear Friends and Supporters - Due to Covid lock-downs progress is still a little slow but, nevertheless, is moving forward. Awareness programmes are delivered over four sessions and targets girls over the age of 10 years. So far awareness training has been delivered to 40 schools, 2640 girls and 396 teachers

Vocational training has suffered the most because schools have had to close under the lock-downs. However, it is hoped to open schools later in June and training in sanitary pad production can start. We must also acknowledge the affect Covid is having on project staff including the chairperson and his family who all came down with the disease. Other project staff have also suffered and had to quarantine on many occasions. 

It is worth remembering why this project is so important for girls to progress and lead normal lives on a par with their male counterparts. Monthly menstruation has always been considered unclean and a danger to the fragile purity and survival of the home. Girls are banished to an outside hut for the duration of their period and many suffer dangers and ill health as a result. The practice of chaupaddi is illegal but it is so ingrained in society that it is still widely practiced to protect the home from evil spirits and, for example, catostrophic crop failures.

The following report is from a middle aged village women who is now a leading supporter of this project and remembers the problems and difficulties of growing up as a young girl in a society that believed menstruation was unclean. 

SANITARY PITS IN SCHOOLS: GREAT WORK FOR THE FUTURE OF GIRLS

My name is Laxmi. I am 45 years old. I come from Baglung Municipality-3, Guthi, Baglung, Gandaki Province of Nepal. I am public representative of Baglung Muncipality with Chairperson of ward no 3. Under my ward office, there are 5 public schools in which 4 schools are secondary

When I got opportunities for joint project monitoring of the Schools Girls Hygiene Project (SGHP) organized by DIRDC with support of NDF/Nepal Trust/ Wilde Ganzen/ Stichting Nepal, I saw the sanitary pits made under the SGHP in all secondary schools of Baglung and Galkot Municipality. I became really happier with flashing back to the difficulties I faced when I was a student. Usually, I used to drop 5 days per month from my school due to my menstruation. During my first menstruation, I had dropped school for 22 days. That resulted me to lose my competency comparing with classmate boys. My exam marks started to slightly reduce in each year.

In our schools girls do not attend school when they have their period, because of the shame, worry, and embarrassment of students finding out they have their period or of blood leaking onto their clothes. Affording sanitary pads can be difficult for girls in remote villages of our country, so using old cloths or other materials such as newspaper or leaves are used as an absorbent. When a girl misses school because of her period, she risks falling behind in her studies, having to then catch up on the material she missed when she returns to home. When they are missing school they can fall behind their peers, which may cause them to lose interest and drop out of school.

After the joint project monitoring, I have started on behalf of Baglung Municipality to distribute the 8 sanitary pads to every girl (if aged of menstruation) per month within the schools located in my ward no 3 of Baglung Municipality. I am committed to support schools to sustainable operation of sanitary pits (including maintenance) and supply of sanitary pads to the girls. Similarly, I would like to thank all including school management committee, DIRDC, NDF, Nepal Trust Uk, Wilde Ganzen and Stichting Nepal Netherland for valuable support for the needy areas of girls education that supports quality education of the girls.

It is very sobering to compare the lives of young Nepali girls who suffer in many ways from a perfectly natural body function that we, in the West, all treat as perfectly normal. Thank you for your help and support to ensure this project can deliver freedom and justice to the women of Nepal. We are well on the way to make this happen in Baglung and we hope you will stay with us to the end. Please tell your friends about this urgent need and how it can change the lives of over 50% of the population.

Namaste