Girl Power, Not Flowers

This Mother's Day, Give the gift of POWER, instead of FLOWERS


In rural Cambodia, girls are often forced to stay home from school during their period because they cannot afford sanitary products. This can cause girls to miss up to a week of school a month, eventually dropping out completely from falling too far behind. With additional school closures due to COVID-19 the likelihood of them leaving school is higher than ever.


Contribute to our campaign and help keep these young women in school.

Studies have shown a higher school enrollment rate in girls leads to community-wide benefits. According to UNICEF, an educated girl is less likely to experience child marriage, face domestic abuse, and suffer from long-term health complications. She is also likely to increase her personal earning potential and reduce poverty in her community. A World Bank study shows that the return on one year of secondary education for a girl correlates with an increase of nearly 25 percent in wages later in life.

Sustainable Cambodia (SC) is teaming up with Days for Girls (DfG) International to take action. We are providing feminine hygiene kits and basic health education workshops to school girls in rural Cambodia. SC’s health department works with local teachers and principals to hold the health education workshops for 7th grade girls. After the workshop the kits are distributed to the girls. 

DfG kits are reusable for up to three years. They are produced at SC’s Fair Trade Sewing Enterprise, a small business in Pursat, that pays local women a fair living wage. In addition to DfG kits, they produce school uniforms, bags, and now, face masks.

In 2019, SC distributed over 400 kits and held workshops at three schools in Pursat Province, home to 500,000 people and more than 100 schools with over 50,000 students. In 2020 thus far, over 500 kits have been distributed to young women and two additional schools have hosted workshops. While these numbers are encouraging, our goal is to reach 20 additional schools with 3,000 more girls in need of basic menstrual products and education.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO REACH MORE GIRLS. A Mother’s Day donation of $15 to our campaign gives the gift of one kit to one girl and helps fund a health education workshop.

We currently spend about $500 per year at a small school, $750 at a medium school, and $1500 at large schools.