CUSTER COUNTY – A project that was 12 years in the making is finally coming together with the Broken Bow Area Rotary and the Victoria Falls Rotary Club in Zimbabwe.
The Broken Bow Area Rotary partnered with a Rotary Club in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe to work on a Global grant towards purchasing sewing machines to help the girls of Zimbabwe make reusable sanitary pads, and the Broken Bow Rotary is hosting an underwear drive so the girls can have something to attach the reusable sanitary pad to.
“We’ve got a project going on out that that I am just darn proud of what our club’s been able to do. We wrote an international grant and partnered with a club in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and it’s a $69,000 and change grant that we received for a girl’s empowerment project there on the ground.” said Deb McCaslin, a Broken Bow Area Rotarian. “And the project puts sewing machines into 123 high schools, and it teaches the girls how to make washable sanitary pads.”
When the girls are menstruating, they do not attend school as they do not have underwear or sanitary pads to help absorb the bodily fluid, which causes the girls to miss one week a month from school, which adds up to two and a half months a year.
Bringing sewing machines to the schools will not only allow the girls to not have to miss school to do a natural bodily cycle but will also provide the girls with sewing skills, which can be used in the workforce. This will give them entrepreneurial skills, business skills, and health skills, which is a gift that will keep on giving for generations.
The Broken Bow Area Rotary will be accepting donations of new, full-coverage, cotton underwear in all sizes. Geared4Sports and Lillie Kate Boutique in Broken Bow have become distributors, which allows the public to make a monetary donation to either store, and the stores will order the underwear in bulk.
“The most amazing things in the world get done when you don’t care who gets credit,” said McCasslin.
If interested in making a monetary donation or dropping off full-coverage, cotton underwear, you can drop off donations at the Chamber Office, Geared4Sports, and Lillie Kate Boutique in Broken Bow.
If interested in joining the Broken Bow Area Rotary or if any further questions pop up about this fundraiser event, you are invited to contact the Rotary via email at [email protected] or give them a call at 308-870-3677.
