David Janetzki MP of Toowoomba South, met Rosalyn Amiss, Days for Girls team leader and volunteers at 452 West Street, Toowoomba at nine in the morning on the 22nd of November 2019, to discuss the change of 10,000 girls in Nepal. While some activists and government efforts have tried to end the practice, Days for Girls have been focusing on the outcomes they can change and keeping girls in school for longer to improve their futures. The Toowoomba women have helped provide dignity and better quality of life to 10,000 girls in Nepal.
A group of Toowoomba sewers have helped change the lives of the women in Nepal through their creation and distribution of washable menstruation kits.Β Roslayn Amiss said their group was preparing to send their next shipment to Nepal, which will include their 10,000th kit. Mrs Amiss was involved in establishing the Toowoomba group in 2014 after discovering on a holiday in Nepal that girls miss five days of school each month due to their periods. An old tradition that girls are banished from their homes whilst menstruating each month still comes to play today. Each month girls are forced to sleep on faeces-covers dirty floors of a grass-roofed shed where farm animals are kept. Many of these girls have been raped by intruders or have died due to exposure to the elements.
βThat is a lot of missed school days over the course of a year which puts girls behind, they eventually drop out of school and risk becoming child brides,β Mrs Amiss said. βDays for Girls also offers sewing training for women in Nepal so they can eventually produce their own kits and support the hygiene needs in their community”.
David Janetzki MP praised the group of women whose monthly sewing meets were making a real difference to others. βRoslyn and her fellow Days for Girls volunteers are using their skills to give disadvantaged girls across the globe education, safety and dignity,β Mr Janetzki said.
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