Pads for School Girls in Malawi

Shatter the shame around menstruation in Malawi, Africa by helping us get funding for female hygiene products!

Currently, many girls in Malawi miss from five to eight days of school every month due to the lack of menstrual hygiene products. Our initiative to sew and distribute re-usable, cloth menstrual kits will help alleviate this problem for 500 disadvantaged secondary school girls by the end of 2017.

As part of this program, women in Malawi will be trained to sew kits, creating entrepreneurial skills and income for more families. Our goal is to raise $6,000 by January 1st, 2017 to buy sewing machines and materials, and to provide training, labor costs and space for a micro-enterprise.

100% of your donation will go to support women and girls in Malawi to stay in school and attain the education that every girl, everywhere has the right to receive. Period!

Girls suffer ridicule, embarrassment and shame if they attend classes when they have their periods. Because of the high rate of absenteeism due to their periods, girls tend to fall hopelessly behind in their classwork and eventually drop out of school. Once that happens their life choices become limited, if not non-existent.

Each kit includes two shields, eight liners, two plastic bags, one drawstring bag, one bar of soap, one wash cloth and two pairs of underwear. They are re-usable for up to three years. These items are scarce and expensive in Malawi. 

After distribution of these kits in Uganda, school absenteeism dropped from 25% to 3%, and in Kenya from 36% to 8%.


Our initiative is based on the curriculum and training provided by Days for Girls (www.daysforgirls.org). Days for Girls is the 2015 winner of the African SEED Award for Sustainability and Gender Equality.

Who are we and why are we doing this?

This project is sponsored by VoiceFlame,  (www.voiceflame.org), an international non-profit that works to improve the lives of girls and women in Malawi. The initiative is in perfect alignment with VoiceFlame’s objective to remove the barriers that prevent girls from attending school.  Our dream is for all girls to have the opportunity to develop their potential and help move their families, villages and country forward.
- Mary Tuchscherer, Founder and CEO, VoiceFlame

As a Malawian woman, I can afford to buy sanitary towels and soap, put on a clean pair of underwear and carry on as normal when I menstruate. However, a village girl can walk up to three miles to school in blistering hot weather with only a tattered, dirty cloth to protect herself. I see huge potential in many young girls. All they need is a chance. Let us give them hope, a future, let them stay in school, let us hold hands and donate towards the ‘Pad Project!’
Chikondi Lunguzi Njawala, VoiceFlame Program Manager, Malawi


“The ‘Pad Project’ seemed like a very clear way to make a huge difference in the lives of the girls in Malawi.  Menstrual supplies could literally change the course of a girl’s life by making it possible for her to continue her education. In a world with so much need, this is one clear way to make a difference.”
- The Pad Project Partners: Anne Dinkelspiel, Ellie Wood, Mary Lou Duran


Thank you for your generosity and support for school girls in Malawi!!