Deacon Goes Home to Uganda with Gift for Girls

Deacon Goes Home to Uganda with Gift for Girls

The Rev. Beatrice Kayigwa, St. Paul's, Gardner

In July 2022, I traveled to Uganda to deliver 2521 packets of reusable sanitary kits to Ugandan girls and to encourage them to continue their studies. I am always glad for the chance to visit my home country.

The idea of getting reusable sanitary kits for the Ugandan girls started as a dream two years ago. We heard stories of some girls who stay home from school when they get in their monthly cycle because they could not afford sanitary products. Staying home for a week adds up to 12 missed weeks of school each year, which makes it difficult for them to keep up with school. The idea continued to grow within our deacon family, and we started talking to people about it so that they could join us to raise funds to buy 2,521 kits.

We teamed up with organizations and community leaders in Uganda to find schools where the girls were finding it hard to afford sanitary products. The students in tailoring classes at a Connect Africa Foundation vocational school made 3,000 kits for us at a reasonable price which served 1,000 girls. From AFRIpads, an organization based in Uganda, we purchased 1,521 packets. We negotiated a price with them which came to about US$4 per packet of four pieces.

We visited 26 schools in two different archdeaconries and dioceses. One of the schools was Muslim founded, and the school administration was very happy to be included in our program. My joy was elevated when we visited Kiwawu, my childhood elementary school.

Rev. Beatrice Kayigwa in Uganda. Photo: submitted

The schools are quite a distance from each other over bumpy roads. For eight days, from morning to sunset, we travelled from school to school. Our journey was not disturbed by any rain, although it was needed as there hadn’t been rain for several months and the crops were drying up.

At each school, we gathered with students and teachers in a hall. We prayed with every school. After this holy time, the boys and the younger girls would go back to their classrooms while the older girls would remain with us to learn how to care for their kits. The kits are reusable for 12 months, so they needed to know how to keep them clean. After this short training, we gave the kits out. The smiling faces of the girls testified how happy they were to receive these kits. No more missing school anymore!

Schoolgirls rejoicing in their gift. Photo: submitted.

I want to thank everybody in our diocese for making this trip possible. As a deacon, I was very much humbled to take your gifts of reusable sanitary kits across the globe to the needy schools. ♦