Days for Girls (DFG) Kits – Finally!

Ella, Erin, Lauren and Kelsey here,

We are writing to update on the Days for Girls (DFG) kits – we know our chapter in Kelowna has been patiently waiting to hear about where the kits have made their impact! The four of us have been working on this project since September and are very grateful that we get to see this project through in Zambia.

Starting on Tuesday this week, Lauren headed to our first site at Limulunga Primary School to meet with the head master and deputy. The purpose of this visit was to ensure our teaching was in line with the school’s values and also to gain an idea of the students learning needs and how we should best relay all the important feminine and sexual health content to the girls. The head master and the staff at this school are amazing, the head master and deputy were very excited to choose 50 of the most vulnerable girls whom to which we could work with the following morning. Lauren had an amazing meeting and quickly began organizing material before the three of us finished our practicums for the day.

Wednesday morning, Adia, Mallory, Diva, Claire, Jessica and ourselves brought our large suitcase and headed to the school at 0900. We had another nice meeting with the headmaster and then got to meet all the amazing girls! We split into 7 stations and rotated small groups of girls through each topic. These topics included: puberty, sex-ed, menstrual cycle, how to care for and wash the kits, HIV/STIs, consent, and empowerment. Starting with a chant we jumped right into it. The girls were so attentive and engaged, this was so cool to experience. Although there was a lot of content to cover, they were amazing listeners and asked challenging but great questions. The teachers helped distribute the kits at the end to 52 girls (thankfully we brought two extra!). At the end, one of the students stood up to express their gratitude and appreciation to not only us but the women back in Canada who worked so hard all year to make this happen. This was a very emotional and humbling moment for all of us.

Wednesday evening, we were off to meet with a rural girl’s football (soccer) club, to hand out another 52 kits! Lauren had been in contact with the girl’s football coach over the past couple weeks and after waiting for the rain to clear, he did an amazing job facilitating the entire evening. This experience was quite different than the morning: instead of the classroom we taught on grass and soil, many of the girls did not speak English or attend school, and we were reaching a broader age group who faced many challenges. Luckily for us, two of the assistant coaches could speak both English and the native language, Silozi, and did a wonderful job translating the important information many of the girls had never heard of prior to this evening. This group also asked a lot of tough but meaningful and important questions and we worked with the assistant coaches to provide the best answers we could. Again, we ended the session with the same empowerment chant but this time we got to learn it in Lozi as well. 

We left this day with sore throats and full hearts. We feel ridiculously privileged and excited that we were able to work with the wonderful girls and women we met at both sites. We are looking forward to where the next 196 kits will take us.

Before we sign off, we want to extend a MASSIVE thank you to our wonderful DFG chapter back in Kelowna. We are thinking of you often and this project would not be possible without all of you and your hard work.

WE ARE WOMEN! WE ARE STRONG! IT'S OK TO SAY NO! MY BODY IS MINE!

Until our next visit,



Erin, Ella, Lauren and Kelsey