UK Charity Champion Chanzige reached out to Technical Absorbents late last year to enquire if our absorbent SAFTM fabrics would be suitable for use in reusable period products that are made as part of a wider project they support in the Kisarwere District of Tanzania. The aim of the charity is to empower teachers and students for a brighter future. Since then, we have agreed to not only supply them with fabric but also sponsored their latest menstrual hygiene workshop.
“Schools in Tanzania are woefully under resourced and class sizes often exceed sixty children…” explains Founder Philippa Jacobs. “…Basic resources like pens and paper are scarce. Often there is no electricity in the schools, and countless numbers have no drinking water available to the students. All these hardships make it very difficult for the dedicated teachers to deliver a meaningful curriculum. On top of this, it is common that when a girl begins her periods they stop going to school.”
In addition to its other work helping teachers and students, the charity now also runs workshops to educate young women about menstrual hygiene and provides them with the tools required to make their own reusable products. Earlier this year Philippa was keen to learn how the performance of these hand-made products could be improved and started researching new materials. This is when she came across Technical Absorbents and made contact.
“Having developed a range of washable materials for this exact use, we were keen to learn more about the project and it soon became clear that this was indeed something that as a company we wanted to support…” explains Technical Absorbents Marketing Manager, Anita Bemrose. “…Samples of various fabrics were initially provided to understand if they were a good fit with the product construction and – more importantly – if they would withstand the humidity! Feedback on both counts was positive and so we agreed to not only supply fabric for their workshops, but also provide sponsorship so that a further workshop could be undertaken this year. This took place recently and the pictures kindly supplied to us by the charity were humbling to see.”
“A total of 75 young women attended the workshop over the course of 4 days…” continues Philippa. “…It is always great to see them working together to make simple products that many of us take for granted. They will make a huge difference in their lives and they also learn new skills along the way. We are now at stage where we also need to hire seamstresses with their own sewing machines to further improve the products that are currently all hand sewn by the students. This is the next stage of the project but we are taking small steps to improve the products and process. The new washable absorbent core fabric kindly donated by Technical Absorbents is all part of this and we hope the relationship continues moving forward.”
For more information about this amazing charity, please visit https://www.championchanzige.com/
