Purse Pad Workshop Report Kundiawa -Simbu Province – PNG

1. JULY 2013: AFTER CORMAN DONATION, UPDATE FROM THE WORKSHOP IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA Purse Pad Workshop Report Kundiawa -Simbu Province – PNG 06th -10th May 2013 Report by: Christine Kombugun Project Manager 1 1

2. INTRODUCTION This is a workshop report on the purse pad and educational awareness on women’s health and hygiene that was conducted from the 06th-10th May 2013 for women and girls at the Wara Ega Ex-Service Men’s Club, about 170 women attended the workshop. This figure does not include the community and village awareness. Each community and village sent 34 participants each to attend as the workshop was organized for one day training for each community. The training was divided into three categories: 12 to 15 years old girls 16 to 25 years old 30 and above and those who are willing to make a living out of it Group One – 12 to 15 years old These groups of girls are a part of the Community Child Rights Club that has been in the community for the past one year and are active in advocating for children’s rights and through this training have learnt quite a lot on women’s health and rights. These children are still in school. Group Two 16-25 years old Group two participants are those who have either drooped out of school or have never been to school and most of these women sell goods at the local market for a living and found this workshop as an opportunity for to make and sell at a lower price for those living in the most remote parts of the province. Group Three 25 and above Same as the above group these women sew and sell clothes at the market as an income to sustain their families. But some of these women are working class women and were interested on the product and topics for the training that made them to attend. 2 2

3. 2. PURPOSE Purpose of the report is to inform the donor of the project and others who have assisted in making this project become a reality for the women and girls of Simbu who can now be able to make their own pads and be able to use them or sell to the less fortunate women and girls who cannot access clean hygienic pads from the shops. 3. TRAINING TOPICS Following topics were covered during the five days training and not only during the training but the same topics have been delivered during community visits. Due to demand in the educational part of the purse pad more women have requested for community awareness on issues regarding maternal and women’s reproductive health and rights. Topics covered were: HIV and AIDS Sexual Transmitted Infections (STI) Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights Family planning and different methods of family planning Women’s health and Hygiene 3 3

4. The workshop started on the 06th of May and ended on the 10th with a total of 170 participants mainly women and girls of various age groups. Starts in the morning at 9:00 am and finishes at 2:00pm in the afternoons daily to give them time to go back and attend to their families and household chores. During the training participants came up with different ideas as to how the pads should be produced using the pattern that the researchers had come up with but wanted only one producer for the pads to maintain quality and using the local women to sew them. Women were willing to give 3-4 hours of their time each day to sew. Sexual reproductive and health rights for women was an eye opener for most as these information was new and brought about a lot of debate regarding their health rights, because here in the highlands of Papua New Guinea once bride price is paid a woman’s role is to bear children and do all the house work, but through this training the participants were thankful that someone out there was able to fund and make it possible for them to access such information. During the workshop lots of ideas and suggestions came up regarding women’s health and hygiene. Reusable pads seem like a solution for many, as some of the participants had 3-5 daughters in their families and using reusable’s will cut the cost of buying pads in the shops. As it is known by many women that any sores on the reproductive systems are all labeled as cancer, but in actual fact it is not cancer but a sore caused by one of the sexually transmitted infections. More training and awareness still have to go out to these areas but the exercise is costly and needs time and money to money to move around. 4 4

5. HIV/AIDS and MENSTRUATION This session was taken by Rebecca Balawi, a young woman living with HIV and what she does during menstruation and how she keeps herself clean. She is an active advocate for HIV within the community and advised women and girls during the training to be more careful during menstruation especially if they are living with the virus as the virus are present in the blood and precaution must be taken when washing the used pads. There are 6 districts in Simbu and representatives for the workshop came from only three districts, Karamui District is accessed by air only as there are no road links. The program is likely to extend to the other reaming districts as most of the villages are remote and do not have access to goods and services and women’s health is a problem. Another workshop is planned to will run for a week for participants in the other three districts to come into a central location to sleep over and attend. With the help of the researchers in putting together ideas and identifying specific pattern, work is underway to produce reusable pads at a cheaper price for the women and girls in the province. This would be sold for a profit to maintain the educational part of the program and also the seamstress who will be engaged in sewing the pads. 5 5

6. TRAINING AND COMMUNITY AWARENESS PICTURES COMMUNITY AWARENESS - Kundiawa 6 6

7. Sexual and Reproductive Health Session 7 7

8. Group work 8 8

9. Sewing machine and second hand clothes used during the workshop 9 9

10. WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS DURING LUNCH BREAK 10 10