From climate change to cancer, solutions to many of the world’s most pressing problems remain elusive. But others persist, even after they’re solved.

Take Southall’s Sanitary Towels for Ladies, a solution for women to manage menstruation. The product hit the U.S. market in the late 1800’s. So why, more than a century later, do girls lose as
many as two months of school each year because of their periods?

The reason often amounts to a lack of appropriate hygiene products among students and insufficient sanitation resources at schools.

Here’s where Days For Girls comes in. With a mission to create a more dignified, humane, and sustainable world for girls, the organization encourages volunteers to sew sanitary kits for distribution to parts of the world where such items are in short supply.

Making Kits for Delivery

On Wednesday, Direct Relief enlisted a group of volunteers to assemble 115 kits.

In Haiti, the kits will help women who receive treatment for precancerous lesions through a Direct Relief-supported cervical cancer screening initiative. Such cases require cryotherapy, which freezes the precancerous cells. The healing process requires additional hygiene pads.

Because there is no municipal garbage disposal where these women live in Haiti, the kit’s reusability is among its essential qualities. Also, the kit’s colors and patterns are designed to mimic those of a hand towel or handkerchief, masking its purpose when hanging to dry.

Direct Relief will send additional kits to PazPeru, a Peruvian organization that helps women recover from sexual assault, and UNC Project-Malawi, which targets vulnerable adolescents who miss school because of lack of sanitary pads.

To get involved, visit the Days for Girls website for instructions to make a kit: DaysForGirls.org/whats-in-a-Kit?