Denise Arnold with Gayle Jowsey, Devon Harland, Elsa Johnson, Katrina Moore, Liz Roelofsen, Allison Richards, and Joy Gillon during the sewing bee. Photo/Ruth Keber
Denise Arnold with Gayle Jowsey, Devon Harland, Elsa Johnson, Katrina Moore, Liz Roelofsen, Allison Richards, and Joy Gillon during the sewing bee. Photo/Ruth Keber
Sanitary hygiene could mean loss of education and a life for a girl in Cambodia - which is why a small energetic group of volunteers are sewing 500 reusable sanitary kits by June.
Cambodia Charitable Trust founder Denise Arnold and seven volunteers last week spent hours behind sewing machines cutting, stitching and assembling the different parts which go into the kits. They would then be gifted to Cambodian girls supported by the organisation.
Last year, the group put together 130 of the kits which included eight reusable pads, two moisture shields [which hold the pads], a wash cloth, two pairs of panties, a visual instruction sheet, travel-sized soap which was all packed into a draw string bag.
Each kit takes about two and half hours to make.
Mrs Arnold said the project was a way to increase access to education for poorer children in the third world country.
Denise Arnold and seven volunteers yesterday spent hours behind sewing machines cutting, stitching and assembling the different parts which go into the kits. Photo/Ruth Keber
"The communities we support are classified as extremely poor and have next to nothing.
"They certainly don't have the hygiene products that we take for granted and can miss out on up to 60 days of school a year due to menstruation. Girls use old rags which are very unreliable and unsanitary," she said.
The kits that volunteers are making can last up to three years and on delivery, education behind adolescent health is given to both girls and boys .
This ensured that young women knew how to stay healthy, safe and look after their kits.
"They all want the kits, but they love the education behind them. One women I met told me when she first got her period, her grandmother said she must have been bitten by a leech.
"It took her hours and hours to work up the courage to ask her what was happening. In the end the grandmother told her 'you're in the shadow and need to stay home for five days'."
Mrs Arnold set up the Cambodian Charitable Trust in 2008 after visiting the South East Asia country and seeing the dire need and poverty within it.
Since then she has travelled back to Cambodia 16 times, seven in the last two years and will head back in June this year to deliver the kits and check on other projects.
Denise Arnold and seven volunteers yesterday spent hours behind sewing machines cutting, stitching and assembling the different parts which go into the kits. Photo/Ruth Keber
"I love the fact you are always welcomed back into their lives, welcomed into their homes, and they themselves as people are so humble. I have extremely good friends there now which are like family.
"The changes I have seen [since CCT] are so clear, I walk into a school now and go 'yes' -the results are so tangible.
"[With the hygiene kits] you see shy young women starting to smile, then laugh, then share stories and understand what they are going through is a shared journey across the world. It's a remarkable situation to be apart of."
New volunteers with sewing experience are welcome to attend the workshops, or those wanting to donate fabric or money for the kits can contact Devon Harland on devon.harland@paradise.net.nz.
