Year One
In the summer of 2022, Hana and I (Samara) traveled to the Basha Valley region of Baltistan. Basha Valley is an extremely rural region, with limited access to supplies such as menstrual products.
We spent four days at the school there, and distributed supplies such as pens, pencils, markers, notebooks, friendship string, and polaroid cameras to the older students. We guided activities based on our materials and used them to teach the students how to make bracelets using the friendship string, and how to use the polaroid cameras. Our goal was to support the school and to familiarize ourselves with the region.
However, we couldn’t help but notice the lack of hygiene facilities, especially for girls, in the bathrooms. The school bathroom was extremely dirty, and had no sink. There was not even hand sanitizer. I even noticed blood smeared on the walls. Through conversation, we later discovered that most girls often miss school when they on their periods, because they have no access to menstrual products – they use rags, and even if they did, the bathrooms at school are inadequate.
This leads to girls being at a disadvantage educationally, which furthers the educational disparity between boys and girls in Pakistan.
Later that year, back in New York, Days for Girls held a workshop at my school. I volunteered to help them pack their DfG reusable menstrual kits, and it struck me how they would be perfect for the girls in Basha Valley. That is how pads for Pakistan were born. We have grown exponentially in our first year, and gained many partners who are supporting our mission of eliminating period poverty in Pakistan.
