Days for Girls Changes Girls' Lives
Around the World

About days for girls

Sixty days out of every year women and adolescent girls experience their menstrual cycle. Many women live in countries where feminine products aren’t easily accessible and cultures that instill a powerfully negative stigma toward their periods. 

While serving at an orphanage in Kenya, Celeste Mergens quickly learned what it was like for a woman to put her life on hold for a week each month because the necessary tools weren’t available to her. It often meant that she would be left to sit in her room until her period had passed.

Celeste founded Days for Girls, an international non-profit organization that makes kits with reusable pads for women who live in places that don’t have available feminine hygiene products. The fabrics used are bright and colorful to make them look less like undergarments.

They are changing lives and making it easier for girls to stay in school. Girls who have sanitary hygiene are more confident in school, their attendance rises and they are more likely to graduate. Plus for every year of education a girl receives, her future income increases and that of her nation as well.

Challenge

The Days for Girls pad design has a waterproof shield component with wings that snap together. The shield’s unique shape is difficult to trace and cut out by hand.

That pain was felt all over the world by Days for Girls volunteers. There was a great need to streamline that part of the process and maximize everyone’s donated time.

Solution

It made sense to look at die-cutting systems and custom-made steel-rule dies for the shield pattern. Days for Girls turned to Custom Shape Pros for all of the dies they need throughout the world.

“The dies have increased the value of my time and the time of my volunteers,” said Carol. “We can cut 996 shields in a few hours. Before, that would have taken days.”

Days for Girls has reached more than 300,000 women and girls on six continents and more than 100 countries. If you want to volunteer too, one of their 520 global chapters is likely nearby.

More customer success stories: Health & Beauty

Company
Days for Girls

Location
Lynden, Washington, USA

Customer Since
2014

Die-Cutting Machine
AccuCut GrandeMARK 2 Die-Cutting Machine and AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutters

Custom Die Type
Standard Steel-Rule Dies and GO! Fabric-Cutting Dies

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