Rakhine Women Network to provide sanitary pads to IDP camps in Arakan

26 Dec 2020

Myo Thiri Kyaw | DMG
26 December 2020, Sittwe

The Rakhine Women Network says it will provide sanitary pads for women and girls at camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State as some camps report that current provisions from donors are insufficient. 

Daw Nyo Aye, chair of the network, said training is also provided for IDP women on how to sew their own sanitary pads for themselves and others. 

“We provide the training with the intention to create a job for IDP women. They can do that job for the long term. If their product is popular, they can generate money by making sanitary pads,” she said.

The pads produced from the training will be provided to IDP camps and the network will charge K400 ($0.30) per sanitary pad if donors want to buy them for donation, Daw Nyo Aye said.

Two nuns from South Korea donated 10 sewing machines, and the Korea Program on International Agriculture provided the required raw materials to make sanitary pads.

A total of 16 IDP women are being provided training and more IDP women who are jobless will be provided training later, the network said.

“The product from the training is not disposable. This is better for us,” said Ma Hla Hla Chay, an IDP from Nyaung Chaung IDP camp who is attending the training.

Ma Nwe Nwe Win, an IDP at Nay Pu Khan IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township, said the sanitary pads supply was not adequate at their camp, where more than 1,200 people are sheltering.

“Our IDP camp receives insufficient sanitary pads from donors,” she said.

More than 30,000 IDPs are estimated to have returned home over recent weeks in the absence of clashes in the state, while more than 190,000 continue to shelter at IDP camps or are otherwise displaced, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress.