A local Girl Guide group is learning about poverty by helping with a worldwide initiative to provide basic necessities and dignity to young girls in Africa.
The 3rd Telegraph Trail Unit is participating in the worldwide Panties with Purpose campaign to help supply panties and sanitary pads to 6,000 girls in Kenya.
Thirty-seven cities from around the world are participating in the e-campaign, started in January by Maridadi.co.ke.
“It was very much about how we can help older girls gain a sense of dignity,” said Guide leader Nancy Cardozo.
The group of nine girls, aged nine to 12, brought together 100 pairs of panties to symbolize the 100-year anniversary of Girl Guides Canada, which was celebrated last year.
Cardozo says this fundraiser is an excellent opportunity to educate the girls on poverty and empathy.
“I was thinking, ‘wow, this is going to be fantastic.’ And we were talking with the girls and exploring a little bit about the meaning of acting globally to change the world,” she said.
“We went over key words like passion, what it means to live in poverty, what it means to lack opportunities, and what other words mean such as dignity and opportunities — all those powerful words.”
According to Cardozo, UNICEF says one in 10 school-age girls in rural areas of Kenya does not attend school during menstruation because of a lack of access to underwear and sanitary pads.
She thought this campaign would be something that would empower both the young women in Kenya and the Girl Guides in Langley.
“To me, it was very inspiring. Change always starts with people and change usually starts with women,” said Cardozo.
Having moved to Canada five years ago from a developing nation in South America, the topic of poverty remains close to Cardozo’s heart.
“I have to remember, the kids all the time feel so entitled that they need this and they need that, and I told them, ‘you come here and I will show you kids who really need things.’
“Kids that are living on the street, kids who don’t have parents, kids that don’t have food, kids that are in the cold and don’t have appropriate clothing — those are the kids that are in need,” she said.
“And seeing that awakens their empathy and their awareness that they are so privileged.”
According to the Panties with Purpose Facebook page more than 43,000 pairs of panties have been collected from the participating cities in two months.
For more information on the campaign, visit the Panties with Purpose page on Facebook.