Local women band together to help fellow women in Zimbabwe
Natasha Williams of Mt. Lebanon volunteered a Sunday afternoon to help make kits of girl empowerment pads to be sent to young girls in Zimbabwe. The reusable pads will enable the girls to attend school every day of the month.
Mother and daughter Tanya and Emma Chotani, both of Mt. Lebanon, cut circles of cotton material for reusable sanitary pads for young girls in Zimbabwe. The pads will allow the girls to attend school during their menstrual periods when normally the girls would remain at home missing a week of education each month.
In the African country of Zimbabwe, and in many other countries, when a woman is having her menstrual cycle, she is considered to be unclean. Young girls who are having their period must miss an entire week of school once a month. It was that disruption of education that upset Kathy Surma of Collier Township to the point that she is spearheading an effort to make girl empowerment pads.
The pre-assembled kits are shipped through Brother’s Brother Foundation or are hand-carried to the young women in rural areas.
Purchasing feminine hygiene products is not readily available in a country like Zimbabwe.
On Sept. 21, a group of about 50 women, and even two men, gathered in the clubhouse of the Villages of Neville Park in Collier Township for a sewing party. Actually, there was no sewing, but rather the group cut and assembled several hundred kits that will be shipped to Zimbabwe in the fall. Another sewing party is planned for May, with Surma delivering the kits to the young girls in rural areas.
“It’s beautiful. It’s wonderful,” Surma said of the reaction she receives from the girls who, because of the kits, can make three reusable sanitary pads and know their education will not be interrupted.
The project is through the Nyadire Connection, an interdenominational, faith-based nonprofit organization based in the Pittsburgh area. The connection supports the Nyadire United Methodist Mission, founded in 2006.
Each kit has directions, both written and in picture form, safety pins, a bar of soap to clean the soiled material, the pre-cut materials to make three pads and underwear.
“They loved it,” Surma said of the first kits. “Before, they used everything, even sticks.”
Now, the Zimbabwean women have refined the design to best suit their needs, Surma said. And it was that design the sewing party group followed.
Emma Chothani, 12, a student at Jefferson Middle School in the Mt. Lebanon School District, was sitting next to her mother, Tanya Chothani, at one of the many tables cutting circles from various patterned cotton that will become a girl empowerment pad.
“It’s hard to imagine they can’t go to school when they are having their period,” Emma said. “I’m helping people I haven’t even met.”
Her mother is a teacher in the Upper St. Clair School District and founded a service club. More than $1,000 was raised by the club members through the sale of wristbands that stated, “Power Outside the Kitchen.” Tanya Chothani said she hopes the club will use the money to purchase material for the spring sewing party.
Kathleen Amant, Ann DeLo and Holly Schulz, all of Mt. Lebanon, sat next to each other at the table.
“This is like the quilting bees of old,” Tanya Chothani said of the circular table.
“It’s nice to know we’re part of something bigger,” Schulz added. “It’s their design. These girls don’t want to miss a week of school each month.”
Maggie Halloran, 12, is a student at Fort Couch Middle School in the Upper St. Clair School District. She said making the kits was a good idea. If anyone asked her what she did during the weekend, Halloran said she knew exactly what she would reply.
“We made maxi-pads for girls in Zimbabwe so they can go to school,” she said with a smile.
DeLo added that she appreciated that a group of women, who didn’t know each other, got together to help young girls they would never meet.
“It’s like we’re doing this with them as they are going to complete (the kits) over there,” DeLo said.
At another table, Kathy Lange of Mt. Lebanon said that a project “near and dear to my heart” is girls’ education, and if having the empowerment pads meant the girls would not miss school, then giving up four hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon was well worth the effort. She recently retired from the Baptist Home in Mt. Lebanon and has decided to take on projects she didn’t have the time to do when she was working.
Jane Kwasniewski of Collier Township said she learned of the project through a community association newsletter and since she sews “a little” was glad to hear her job was to cut circles.
Natasha Williams of Mt. Lebanon said she learned of the sewing party through the Mt. Lebanon Methodist Church. She attended the sewing party with her mother, who was seated at another table.
“Why not help the girls, (the menstrual cycle) is universal,” Williams said. “This is positive energy.”
For Carmel Fedak of Scott Township, volunteering to help the girls was an easy decision.
“To give back and to help the girls,” Fedak said.