Days for Girls 

The Days for Girls Australian Conference has been held in Brisbane in November.

It is official now that Days for Girls has reached 27.7 million girls acroos the globe and the numbers are increasing rapidly. I attended the conference where 14 women and men were brought to Australia from Oceania, including Timor Leste, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Marshall Islands. The leaders in these countries are making a huge difference to the culture surrounding menstruation, health and hygiene by educating women, girls and men. The taboos regarding menstruation in these countries are complex. Some of these leaders were Rotarians who are passionate about investing in girls’ education so that their communities will be transformed. We learnt about young girls in Fiji who begin menstruating at the age of eleven or twelve and are then told that they are women now and are able to get married.

 

In September, through their partnership with World Vision Canada, DfG Australia sent around 18,000 kits to Burundi via Canada. This is because World Vision Australia ceased their Gifts in Kind program. Kits were collected in main cities and transported to Canada to be distributed by World Vision in the refugee camps. Education is the key and special staff were assigned to training and distribution.  DfG organised the way of working with the distributions and are assured that boys and men will be included in the program.

 

I am hoping to hear of any Rotarians in our district who are involved in a DfG program either sewing kits or organising distributions. It would be great to let other Rotarians know how we are all helping with this program. I would like to hear of sewing kits, fund raising and distributions if any of you are involved. Two DfG groups in Bairnsdale contributed 830 kits to the Burundi distribution – that amounted to 31 large boxes. The value of these kits was $20,450. We all rely on the kindness of individuals and groups to purchase the materials and tools for this work. I will be requesting a small donation from each club in our district 9820 to enable us to keep sewing and giving our kits to those women and girls most in need. All countries, as well as Australia, benefit greatly from DfG.

 

Finally, I would like to tell you that my friend from the Rotary Club of Lautoka, after the cyclone in Fiji, insisted on including a DfG kit in each Shelter Box which was used for those affected by the cyclone. Wouldn’t it be great if Rotarians could make this a common inclusion in every Shelter Box delivered to broken communities across the world? Remember that the kits are washable, sustainable and reusable for 3 years. Environmentally that is a huge plus for our planet.