Girl Scouts from Vienna, Oakton, Reston and Alexandria have been volunteering tirelessly at home since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to help assemble components of reusable, eco-friendly menstrual pads for girls in low- and middle-income countries. Ever since the sheltering-in policy and requirement for physical distancing, these Girl Scouts have refused to let COVID-19 prevent them from making the world a better place for sisters around the world. As we all know, periods don't pause for pandemics.
These Girl Scouts are partnering with the Northern Virginia Chapter of Days for Girls, a nonprofit that increases access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating social enterprises, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigmas and limitations for women and girls. Days for Girls gives girls back the days otherwise lost due to menstruation so they can attend school and participate fully in society.
Normally these Girl Scouts would attend a monthly volunteer event hosted by Days for Girls. Instead they have been doing all of the volunteer tasks at home: assembling shields, liners, and transport bags to create menstrual kits.
Days for Girls Volunteer Coordinator Kathy McIlvain said, "For the last two months, NO VA Girl Scouts and their leaders have enthusiastically given their time and talents to the Vienna Chapter of Days for Girls. They have cut and sewn, glued and stitched, measured and pressed, strung and snapped, organized and inventoried--over and over again! They have indeed been busy! Thanks to their remarkable efforts, hundreds of DfG kits will be able to be assembled and ultimately distributed to girls around the world!"
Girl Scouts participating in this project include troops from Service Units 51-1, 51-7, 52-11, 53-3, 56-1, and 56-6 of the Girl Scouts Nation's Capital. Girl Scout provides girls in grades K-12 with opportunities to learn new skills, explore STEM, discover the outdoors, become entrepreneurs, and discover the power of girls together. Girl Scouts Nation's Capital serves members in the Greater Washington Region, with more than 88,000 members. Together, with the support of dedicated adult volunteers and parents, Girl Scouting helps build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.