“Education is the key to unlock the golden doors of freedom”

Project

• Drop-In-Centre for adolescent girls to create awareness for young women related topics and for providing facilities of Sanitary Napkins of low cost
• FREEDOM, a Sanitary Napkin Production in NOSKK premises

The Beginning

In 2004 the adolescent-friendly project was started with the help of two Swedish individuals Ms Sandra Dahlen and Janne North. They are both trainers in SRHR (sexual reproductive and health rights). In 2009, the Sanitary Napkin Production was added to empower young adolescent girls. For the production, women were trained in the manufacturing of Sanitary Napkins. Janne and Sandra not only fund the project but also give away the Sanitary Napkins for free for the neediest.

Why do we produce Sanitary Napkins?

Often adolescent girls are too ashamed to go to local stores to buy Sanitary Napkins or the Sanitary Napkins are not affordable for them. Therefore, they just use pieces of cloth during their menstruation. Often these cloths are not washed deeply enough and moreover dried in a moist place and not in the sunlight. This causes a great risk for the health of the women, in addition to being tensed and ashamed of their period.

Awareness Training

While picking up the Sanitary Napkins, the girls are also informed about topics as Menstrual Hygiene, HIV, Hand Wash, Early Marriage, School Drop-Outs and Domestic Violence. In the group the girls are also encouraged to talk about their menstruation and their issues related to this topic. Maria Khatun leads the class in our premises two days weekly.

Objective of the Project

• create awareness for menstruation and other important coming of age topics
• accessibility to affordable Sanitary Napkins possible for everybody
• prevent health issues

Beneficiaries

• Monthly 1358 adolescent girls get facilities of low cost Sanitary Napkins and are members of the Drop-in-Centre

Sanitary Napkin Production Unit

• Every weekday six women produce the Sanitary Napkin, named Freedom
• In our small Sanitary Napkin Production all 5 steps, from plain cotton to a finished Napkin, is done
• 3840 Sanitary Napkins are produced every week
• 24 Rupees is the cost of one package (8 pieces) of Sanitary Napkin

Vending Machine

In March 2019 we inaugurated a Sanitary Napkin Vending Machine in the premises of NOSKK, donated by Madame Sajda Ahmed, Member of Parliament – Loksabha.
With that vending machine, girls and women can purchase Sanitary Napkins, which are produced by our Freedom Sanitary Napkin Producer Unit for a low price in an emergency case in and around the office.