(Random photos have popped into this post from my next post, and they don't show up when I edit or preview so I can't get rid of them. Jessy or Julie, can you figure out how to fix this for me long-distance??)
Sanitary towel (as it is referred to here) workshop day! Magdaline and I start out at 8:30 so we have time to pick up Anastasia in Kiawara on the way. She's an old friend, mother of Dipo (now working in China!) and Joyce, two students of mine when I volunteered at nearby Lavenda Springs Academy. This is Anastasia with a nephew she has taken in. She's currently raising several relatives' orphaned children.
Here is Beatrice Ndiritu, who was sponsored for several years by Glenbard South High School teachers. She lives near Magdaline's church where the training was held.
Magdaline was trained last week in washable, re-usable sanitary towels by Susannah Henderson of Mwezi Project. We bought the fabric, needles, etc. yesterday at a fabric shop in Nyeri.
Here the women are measuring out the fabric which will become the moisture barrier and holder of the actual cloth sanitary pads.
They've cut using a template that Magdaline brought from the workshop she attended.
A number of the women brought their babies and toddlers, who were uniformly adorable and well-behaved.
The pieces are being lined with plastic.
Latecomers from another area.
It's cold and windy here in August, the winter season. The little ones wear balaclavas so their ears are always covered outside.
Magdaline always picks up babies if it looks like their moms need help.
The venue, Magdaline's Catholic church.
The kids were too much! They filled their shoes with sand and played happily the entire time.
These two kept trying to get in front of the camera.
Two of these women are old friends. Monika, on the left, is a teacher at the nearby school, married to Joseph, another teacher friend. They have three-year-old twins. Monika, who did her teacher training in Samburu, told us that the women there sit on the ground to absorb their menstrual blood. Shiro, second from the right, had her tell me her idea to get a group of women together to go to Samburu to teach the women there about reusable sanitary pads.
The church wasn't a perfect venue, but you can see here that the women just worked on a bench in front of them, and helped each other out.
Here is Magdaline working with Mumbi.
Such adorable kids.
Magdaline brought me outside to meet a couple of young men who coach/manage, along with Magdaline's son Simon, a local football (American soccer) club for disadvantaged and unemployed youth.
Monika on the left, who suggested the Samburu training, next to Shiro.
Joyce, on the left, was a teacher at the local school. She invited us to talk to a church group in a Nyeri slum after the workshop.
So much cuteness!
Magdaline's daughter Eunice took the lead in logistics, and is on the right helping.
Measuring the soft fabric for pads.
The kids seem to barely slow their moms down. Dedication.
On to a church in Nyeri that Joyce asked us to speak at. We talked from 4:00 until 6:00. I covered HIV and sex ed, Magdaline talked about the importance of support groups, and sanitary pads. She scored herself a return engagement to run a workshop.
Magdaline demonstrating the pad holder.
The pastor who invited us, outside his church.
Me, Joyce, the pastor and Magdaline.
On our way back, I told Magdaline it was my first time in a slum. She said it was hers, too. A very interesting experience.
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