Bairo Pite Clinic and Rotary Dili - a great mix

We have been excited that Rotary Dili was inspired to purchase 100 MHM packs to pass on to Dr Dans clinic at Bairo Pite.
This week Fi, from the clinic arranged for Belekria to visit and run a small training class with some midwives, nurses and cleaners.  They will be distributing them to women when they are discharged and returning to the districts.

Emmy led the Discussion and was quite adept at explaining the benefits and use of all the packs items.

 The women were really interested, occasionally shy and giggly, especially when the underpants were pulled out :)

After Emmy had finished, 3 of them had a go at explaining what they had learned. They did really well.  Then at the end, time was given for any questions.
First Question:
"Can we buy these at the kiosk?"
Second Question:
"How much are they?"
Third Question:
"Where is your business/shop?"

The implication is that most of them want to be using them themselves.  Pretty encouraging feedback.

Rotary informed of the MHM issues in Timor Leste

Yes its been months since i posted last!  Ill be catching up over the next week or two.

A couple of months ago I received a phone call from Geraldine, recent Director of CARE here in Timor.  She has had a real passion to assist Belekria's vision, and has been trying to advocate for women.  She let me know that she was going to be speaking at the Dili Rotary club meeting about the topic of women's sanitation, and she was going to recommend they purchase some pads to donate to Bairo Pite Clinic (Dr Dans Clinic)..

I was so excited by this possibility as for a number of years this clinic has expressed an interest in receiving the pads to distribute, but we had not been able to find a suitable way, so perhaps Rotary will be able and willing to fill that need.
 

Dr Dans, Bairo Pite Clinic

Some more awareness of womens issues

I was very excited to be invited to attend a meeting at BESIK, where Jose and her colleagues were collating data they had collected in the Bobonaro District last week.  BESIK is looking at how to assist women in their sanitation needs.  Part of this includes a goal to increase the use of toilets, but also assessing what women's needs are in regards to sanitation.  It was fascinating discovering some of the beliefs surrounding menstruation, and both encouraging and informative for Belekria.
I was able to show a sample of our pads, and explain a few benefits.  They were quick to realise themselves that the pads would save money and create less rubbish.  One woman commented how soft the fabric was.
In preparation for the meeting I began to sketch out some notes, and the dot points I began with, grew into a decent report conveying my process and developments, challenges and hopes.
I will upload the report to the research page above.


Being a sewing room, I think its ok to say that im glad that "gender" has come into fashion. :)

On the same theme, Liz at CARE has also contacted me and I hope to be able to chat with her early next week.

To Do List:

• CARE
• World Vision
• PLAN
• ALOLA