Deaconesses learn
how to measure the girls and women for the correct feminine hygiene kit

For three of the Mexico deaconesses, the experience of seeing a Days for Girls International workshop left them brainstorming of the many ways they could help their churches and communities learn and grow through the education of the health and protection of girls and women.

Women share about personal experiences, including the struggle in places like Cuba and the mountains of Chihuahua when it comes to feminine hygiene products

Kathy Carter, ARNP, from Lincoln, NE is part of Common Threads Ministry and has traveled around the world educating girls and women on their menstrual health, the importance of abstinence to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and the danger of human trafficking. In conjunction with the Mexico deaconesses, she was able to bring this education workshop to a secondary school in Juarez, where all three deaconesses were exposed to information they weren’t taught about in school or by their mothers.

“For many years, talking about menstruation has been taboo,” one of the women who attended the first of three training sessions with Kathy, shared afterwards, “My mother never told me about my period, and now, no one talks about menopause.”

Training sessions allowed for questions and concerns concerning women’s health to take place

This was a common comment made by many of the women who attended the workshops and training. Even young women in their twenties, who studied in Mexico, shared how, though the information was in school textbooks, the teachers wouldn’t teach on it and their mothers wouldn’t tell them about it.

“We can see how important it is for this kind of education to be done,” Rosy Lira, deaconess for three of the Mexico missions, shared before the training session took place Friday morning, “Not just for the girls and women of our congregations and community, but also for the women in the Juarez prisons, who have little to no access to feminine hygiene products, for the migrant women who are houses in shelters, and for many others.”

Women at the Rescue Mission of El Paso also requested training on the Days for Girls curriculum and kits

Prior to the pandemic, Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YML) partnered with non-profit organizations in Mexico to provide needed disposable feminine hygiene products to female prisoners. Now, the process of accessing permission has to be initiated once again, a goal the deaconesses have set for the missions in Mexico. This time, though, they would not only be giving sustainable and reusable feminine kits that last up to five years, but also needed education through the love of God.

“Though this isn’t a faith-based organization,” Kathy explained during the training sessions concerning Days for Girls International, “The teacher can bring the truth of God into the curriculum, sharing with the girls and women how they are created in God’s image and they are beautifully, fearfully, and wonderfully made.”

Erika Tovar, wife to Pastor Misael Tovar, was excited to bring the curriculum and several dozen hygiene kits to the Chihuahua missions where, with her husband, they minister to several dozen families, including indigenous women who have little to no access to education or feminine care.

“It’s going to be a wonderful new way to minister to girls and women,” Erika shared as she went through the large booklet containing the education information and graphics, “These are things they deal with daily but are not informed about. To be able to minister in such a practical and simple way will open new doors for God’s love to enter through.”