What if… not having sanitary supplies meant: DAYS without school, DAYS without income, DAYS without leaving the house?
Millions of girls around the world use leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, rocks, anything they can find, but still miss up to two months of school every year. They then drop out of school and become teen mothers living in poverty and/or susceptible to exploitation. This issue is a surprising but instrumental key to social change for women all over the world. The poverty cycle can be broken when girls stay in school!
In the summer of 2015, Commonwealth Home Design co-owner, Susan Pierce, founded the Northern Virginia chapter of Days for Girls to help combat this global issue.
Days for Girls is a non-profit, international organization that empowers girls and women worldwide with more dignity, health and safety through access to quality sustainable menstrual health management and education. Its vision is that every girl and woman will have access to feminine hygiene by 2022.
Susan holds monthly service projects in her home and Vienna Presbyterian Church where volunteers cut, assemble and sew sustainable feminine hygiene kits. The Northern Virginia team has created over 1,000 kits so far; that’s over 1,000 women’s lives changed!
“I am so inspired by the Days for Girls mission. It’s nice to have found a charity that means a lot to me and is something I can establish, grow and someday hand off. It makes you realize you can make a huge difference in women’s lives.”
– Susan Pierce, Commonwealth Home Design Co-Owner & Founder Days for Girls Northern Virginia