Kingswood School would like to extend a huge congratulations to Alberta, Phoebe, Florence, Sophie and Manaka on receiving ‘The Stantec Developing Future Communities Award’ in June’s Big Bang Competition in Birmingham’s NEC. The award is given to projects demonstrating how science and engineering can advance the quality of life in communities, whether locally or around the globe.
Kingswood students were awarded first prize for their project ‘Girls into School: Leak-free for you and me – reusable sanitary pads’. The students created reusable sanitary products for those living in poor conditions and without access to period care. The team made contact with a teacher in Kibera, a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. The insight into life for menstruating women and girls living in Kibera was the spark for the team’s idea. The fact that ‘an estimated 90% [of women and girls] are not able to access disposable sanitary pads’ in Kibera, motivated the team to spring into action. Their project aims to close the gap of inequality between men and women, and to help girls move out of poverty and into higher education.
Speaking on behalf of the School, Chemistry Teacher Mr Snell, spoke of their achievements “When the team became aware of how much Kenyan girls living in poverty were being held back educationally, they were shocked and worked very hard to remove a major hurdle to the girls’ ability to escape these conditions”.
In addition to designing this project, the students’ aspiration is to empower women to make, use and sell their own sanitary pads, by sending sewing machines and materials to Kibera. “The process of working on our project was interesting, I enjoyed having to work through it methodically” Florence comments, “It was really interesting to talk to other people about the project at the competition and seeing how many people empathised with the idea and you could tell they wanted us to continue the project.”
Shortly after their win, the team were invited to Radio Bath for a live interview with Bob Crampton. They were thrilled to have the chance to talk about their plans and hope to raise £2000 to get the project off the ground. For more information and if you would like to make a contribution, please email Mrs Wood at jwood@kingswood.bath.sch.uk.
Kingswood School is so proud of the creativity, innovation and ingenuity shown by Alberta, Phoebe, Florence, Sophie and Manaka. ‘Girls into school: Leak-free for you and me – reusable pads’ is an inspirational project that has the potential to change lives.