Helping fight period poverty
Pupils raise cash for reusable items
A pair of primary pupils are paving the way to eradicate period poverty.
Abi Hay and Jodie Kilbride from Alloway Primary held a bake sale raising funds to purchase sanitary products for women in Malawi.
A group of six teachers from both Alloway and Doonfoot primaries are joining 13 Alloway Parish church members for a two- week trip to Malawi next month.
The team have been holding fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for the mission.
And the P6C girls teamed up to whip up some tasty treats to sell, raising £ 95 to help a whopping 440 girls at Bandawe All Girls Secondary School.
Class teacher Amy Currie is among those heading out on the trip.
She said: “Each girl is going to get a kit which contains two medium pads, two maxi pads, underwear and soap that’s specially formulated.
“The company who are making them are based in Malawi so they can come and meet us when we’re in Malawi, and deliver them and training to all the girls as well.
“It means the girls will understand the importance of hygiene and maintaining everything - so that they can use these products for years rather than running out every couple of months.”
Eleven- year- old Abi said: “The idea behind it was to buy sanitary products for the girls in Malawi who can’t afford them, so we thought of using normal ones but then thought they would run out really quickly.
“Our teachers did some research and we decided to look for reusable ones.”
Jodie, also 11, added: “We had the puberty talk at school so that gave us the idea. Other diseases can be caused by not taking care of yourself so we want to voice that.”
The girls baked up 400 top hats, Rice Krispie cakes and truffles to sell.
Teacher Amy said: “We’re a level two rights respecting school and at that level the expectation is that the children are leaders of learning and moving things forward - and they are vocal of the change they want to see in the world.
“We were talking about period poverty in class and the fact that even in this country there are people who can’t afford sanitary products.
“The Scottish government are now going to fund sanitary products for all school girls and we were discussing about how lucky we are, but the girls flagged up that it wasn’t the same for Malawi.
“We’re very proud of the girls - we would never have thought of this ourselves so it’s brilliant.”