“Make Your Own” Workshops: the Perfect Bat Mitzvah Project
By Joanie Levine
Joanie Levine manages the Tikkun Olam Committee’s Abayudaya (Uganda) Fund of Congregation P’nai Or in Portland, Oregon. This fund assists Abayudaya students in attending primary school through college. She and her partner Yehudah Winter spent three weeks with the Abayudaya in 2014, teaching them Compassionate Listening skills. This project, “Make Your Own” workshops, is the fruition of a shared dream of helping a group of Abayudaya women start a reusable sanitary pad business, a business made possible by the ongoing assistance of Days for Girls in Uganda.
Suzan Nakumiza and Racheal Nairima, two Abayudaya women living in the village of Namutumba, Uganda, are the owners of Namutumba for Girls, a subsidiary of Days for Girls, a non-profit which began in Kenya in 2008 to provide reusable menstrual pads and, later, empowering women to make menstrual pad kits as a business for women. DFG has now reached more than one million women and girls in at least 124 countries. Suzan and Racheal are sewing and selling colorful reusable sanitary pads and liquid soap using the Days for Girls templates and special materials.
Lorne Mallin (who long ago sparked my interest in this community) and I raised funds to send Suzan and Racheal to a two-week Entrepreneur Launchpad in the Ugandan capital, purchased two pedal sewing machines, chairs, tables, shelves, and rented a shop. Kulanu supporter Janet Lipsey generously donated funds for the women to conduct their first three “Make Your Own” workshops in Namutumba and at Hadassah Primary School in Nabagoya Hill. Kulanu is supplying the business with two phones and computer. This product and workshop helps girls stay in school and attend classes while they have their periods, a serious problem throughout Africa. Our goal is to bring workshops to all of the Abayudaya villages and schools. “Make Your Own” workshops provide a comprehensive reproductive health session that includes sewing three parts of the Days for Girls menstrual hygiene kit—a shield, a liner and a cloth bag. The rest of the kit plus soap is provided pre-made to ensure that the girls and women have components that will last up to four years.
Consider helping Abayudaya women and girls for your bat mitzvah project! Choose a village or school and raise the funds necessary to bring “Make Your Own” to the girls and women. Contact Joanie Levine, Project Coordinator, at joanlevine@me.com or go to facebook.com/suzannakumiza for more information.