Youth Well Being Opportunities
As MMC has grown over the years, we have been able to reach out to other schools in the region. It has developed well because of the significant collaboration with the Girl Child Network of Zimbabwe. They are working with the teachers in the some of the local schools (primary and secondary) and so that has made our way clear to work with their girls. Its not walking distance from Nhimbe so our MMC leaders can’t go there easily without a driver (Muda). We go there for distribution of start-up kits and give them soap and then the teachers handle the regular weekly meetings because of their training with Girl Child Network. This has been a phenomenal support to what we are doing!MMC – Mhandara Monthly Care (Mhandara is Shona for women’s days)
One Girl’s MMC Start-up Kit Lasts 3 yearsGirls in Zimbabwe have extremely limited access to monthly supplies or the counsel to prepare them to be young women. Our Mhandara Monthly Care (MMC) program provides re-usable washable supplies and monthly soap. Weekly meetings are also included to help stabilize the girls’ lives. Everyone deserves the basics. Thank you for your help with this particular path to empowerment!
MMC Soap for 1 Girl for 1 YearSoap is not a staple in many homes due to the economic hardships being faced in Zimbabwe. Although cleanliness is a priority, choices are often being made to survive what daily life brings. Our goal is to provide each girl with a two-inch slice of soap each month.
Girl’s 3-day Camps, 3 times a year!Our Youth Well Being camps provide interested girls of all ages with three days of activities and meals, three times a year. This is a special place where they can learn how to cope with modern concerns, such as HIV, teen pregnancy, and child-marriage, as well as ancient common problems like peer pressure and predators. Girls are coming from over a dozen schools, (all Nhimbe villages as well as six additional schools from the next chief’s region, including a community college). With $12 you can send one girl to all three camps! Thank you!
Underwear for Over There
Another way we want to influence the lives of our girls is to buy them underwear. Many girls have no panties and so we are buying each child three pair. Our goal is to see that all the girls have underwear. Please consider forgoing the latte or DVD rental this week and buy some underwear for over there, by contributing to the MMC program! Thank you.
Underwear for Over There Celebration Video
This 2011 video clip shows the joy of the girl guides who received 3 pair of panties in response to our “Underwear for Over There” Campaign. Many more girls received underwear but were not present at this Girl Guides Life Skills Learning Retreat in late August. In 2012, we expanded the campaign to be “Underwear and Monthly Care for Over There” to help meet the personal health needs of our young women.
It was only because of the Teen Care Camps that we even found out that they needed underwear. Then in a following camp, we found out that they didn’t have monthly care supplies.
Monthly Care for Over There – Mhandara Monthly Care
From the Underwear campaign we learned a great deal. Resources necessary for health and hygiene related to the female monthly cycle is not something young Shona women can take for granted. Without these basic resources, these girls cannot adequately care for themselves. So, often they stay home from school, suffer illness from lack of sanitation and struggle with self esteem.
Monthly Care for Over There is a collaboration with adult women. We are providing the girls with adequate supplies, thus enabling them to engage fully in life with the confidence and vigor of emerging young women.
Brenda Andresen of Lotus Pads out of Corvallis, OR, has been our partner to assist in developing a solution for these girls and women. Additionally many donors have given us cotton flannel to help with making the monthly care supplies. Besides putting together the patterns and women to be able to manufacture these reusable washable supplies, we also buy (15”) laundry bars of soap so a girl may get a slice of soap for the month. Each bar is cut up into 8 pieces and distributed.
This all seems so simple to those of us in the U.S., but unlike us, women in many parts of the world, and specifically Zimbabwe, cannot take these necessary resources for granted.
Another goal of the Monthly Care for Over There Program is that it gives us regular meeting times with each girl and help us to help her with her personal needs regarding HIV and pregnancy prevention, while at the same time, decreasing her hygiene challenges.
Your interest in these young girls changes their lives forever in a very positive way!
Support Our Troop!
The Girl Guides program needs support, just like our Girl Scouts in the US. The annual membership for each girl is $3. In Zimbabwe they can’t sell cookies, do car washes, or otherwise raise funds. If you know a Girl Scout program or other organization that could pledge and then raise a small amount towards this girls program, everyone would be elated. Please support however your budget allows! Thank you!