We’ve spent the past few days with students and the headmaster of a school at Nyabiheke Refugee Camp, and the time has gone too quickly! We’re wrapping up and saying our goodbyes. But not before one last idea.
This idea came again from Aimable, the headmaster at the school. He was trying to solve a problem affecting the young girls who study in his classrooms.
As they get older, too many refugee girls have difficulty staying in school. One of the reasons they end of dropping out is because of their period – it can be tough to deal with it away from home.
Aimable has already designed for that. The school has a room where young girls can go after they have gotten their period for the first time. But it was missing some essential items…
The room has sanitary pads, a bed, a change of clothes, and a place to wash. It is meant to be a way to ease the sometimes-awkward moments of adolescence. But the problem? They just didn’t have enough pads.
So the idea was simple – provide new sheets for the bed and six months worth of sanitary pads.
When the new sheets where on the bed, it made the whole room look much more inviting and bright. And the new pads will be given to the girls who couldn’t get them on their own, or didn’t have them when they needed them.
Our work was finished at Nyabiheke, but we left with a smile. And, a few ways to help make the community there feel a little brighter.
