Midday Rotary empowers girls from rural communities in San Miguel de Allende

Published January 16, 2023

By: Fernanda Morales

At a press conference, the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende -Midday, provided the Presentation of the Girls’ Empowerment Program, together with the Signing an agreement with the Secretary of Education of Guanajuato.  The program of empowers young girls of 4th and 5th grade attending primary school. The program will begin in the rural communities of the municipality, to which certified teachers will arrive to give menstrual education and at the end of the workshop of 5 modules the girls will be given a menstrual control kit of effective, washable and reusable products that can last from 3 to 4 years.

This initiative is based on the fact that about 80% of young women lose their self-esteem when they reach puberty, due to inadequate information and preparation for the life cycle. There are entire communities that have never seen a textbook that talks about menstruation, adding to the Mexican macho culture that portrays menstrual cycles as dirty, embarrassing, or something that needs to be hidden.

The event was attended by Region I Education Delegate Juan Rendón, Erika Hernández, teacher and coordinator of the empowerment program, as well as José DeAnda, a member of the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende -Midday.

The signing with the Secretary of Education of Guanajuato is the key to achieving credibility with families and communities and will lead to the coordination of the first stage of the program in the months of January to April, two to three workshops per week in rural primary schools achieving approximately 36 workshops. Each workshop consists of five 2-hour modules that empower approximately 20 girls per workshop at the end of this first stage, projecting 400 girls and the goal is to teach 2000 girls over the next twelve months.

Each girl who completes at least 4 of the 5 modules will receive a menstrual control kit of effective products using washable, ecological and reusable sanitary napkins that will last for 3 to 4 years. The production of menstrual control kits will create additional opportunities for civil associations and create jobs. The goal is to provide durable, high-quality kits at affordable prices to maximize the impact of this project. In this first stage, Days For Girls, a non-profit association, which empowers and provides work to women, is the first provider of menstrual control kits.

The total cost of teaching 2000 girls during the 2023-24 school year will be more than one million 800 thousand pesos including the Menstrual Control Kit, this is being supported by donations from local communities; Rotary clubs in San Miguel de Allende, USA, Canada, and the Rotary Foundation.

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