Women learn to sew reusable sanitary items
At a time when most women may not be able to afford to buy sanitary items, Homes of Hope has taken an innovative approach to train members to sew reusable sanitary items.
Trainer Litea Cavalevu said a group of women, as part of their training, visited 8 Mountains Fiji, an established fashion label in Lautoka on Thursday, to see how they sew reusable sanitary items. The aim is to help women live a sustainable life amid the challenges we face these days, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
8 Mountains Fiji is certified by the Australian group ‘Days for girls’, which distributes reusable sanitary kits in the Pacific.
The organisation currently sews sanitary kits packed in a knapsack that has two undergarments, a reusable sanitary pad with five liners, face cloth and soap. The reusable items take 30 minutes to wash. “We haven’t started with our ‘Days for girls’ kit so this excursion is for us to just see how it’s
done and then distribute to the community because paying for pads is very expensive,” Ms Cavalevu said.
Homes for Hope training and social enterprise team leader Sunil Kumar said members were also trained to bake, cook and farm.
“At the moment we are not really registered for ‘Days for girls’ so we’re just doing basic training. At the moment, they do handbags, cosmetics, kitchen and bedroom wear and things like pillows, crochet, table runners, and placemats,” he said.
8 Mountains Fiji founder Moira Solvalu John said she had been sewing sanitary kits for the past two years.