The Nyadire Connection
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Programs

​The Nyadire Connection maintains many ongoing programs, focused on Health, Orphans, and Education and Relationships:

  1. Hospital support
  2. ​Rural health clinic rebuilds
  3. Agriculture
  4. Girl Empowerment Pad
  5. Eyeglasses
  6. Home of Hope
  7. Home of Hope Outreach/School Sponsorship​
  8. CMU Engineers without Borders
  9. Hearing Innovation
  10. Volunteer-in-Mission Teams
  11. Scholarships
Girl Empowerment Pad
Program leader:  Bonnie Lawson
Email:  bonnielawson58@comcast.net
To make a tax-deductible donation to this program, please click HERE and specify "GEP" if writing a check.
​ 
In Africa, girls fall behind their male peers academically due to a lack of feminine hygiene items that forces girls to miss school, often for days. In addition to the girls, also affected are African women and those working in and around TNC’s orphanage, schools and clinics in Nyadire.   To address this issue, in 2011 TNC created the Girl Empowerment Pad (GEP) Program. 
 
Program Goals:
(1) Keep girls in school during their menstrual cycle to avoid learning loss;
(2) Give them tools to make their own sanitary supplies; and
(3) Provide culturally- and age-appropriate health education
 
Achievements:  The program has evolved organically, from the “grass roots” in Pittsburgh and Nyadire, via women helping women.  At first the program provided schools with pre-sewn, reusable cotton pads. Then we began furnishing kits with all items needed for girls to sew their own pads.  Then GEP began to supply U.S. kit items for local assembly in Zimbabwe. In addition, volunteers trained teachers and paired health literature and education with sewing activities.  And we have sent refurbished manual and electric sewing machines to seven primary schools.
 
Impact:  To date more than 10,000 pads or kits have been distributed; 80 sewing machines refurbished and sent to schools; 20 teachers trained and 500 copies of a book on puberty have been distributed.  More than 3,000 girls have participated in this life-changing, confidence-building program.  Sewing classes now offer culturally and developmentally appropriate hygiene education, and teach girls to sew not only pads but also clothing as well as facemasks for COVID-19 prevention. 
 
Two New Initiatives:   To keep the program sustainable, Zimbabwean partners cannot be dependent on U.S. supplies, and new leadership must be cultivated as teachers move on.  For these reasons we are launching two new initiatives:
  • The Giving Tree:  Proceeds from cards returned via the Giving Tree effort will allow partners to buy supplies in Zimbabwe, thereby avoiding shipping container delays and storage fees.
  • The Sewing Scholarship:  This scholarship will fund tuition for a professional tailoring and sewing program at the Tabudira Vocational School.  Recipients will be able to earn income by sewing to meet market demand, and will be required to train students on how to sew. 
 
Recognition:  Women and Girls Foundation of SW PA (2013); Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, WESA-FM, Almanac.
 
What You Can Do
  • Give
    • $5 per kit (in multiples of $5, please)
    • $50 to support sewing machine repair or a set of sewing lessons
    • $250 for 50 copies of Growing Up in School, the chosen hygiene book appropriate for young African girls
    • Make checks payable to TNC, with “GEP Program” in the memo line; mail to Christ United Methodist Church, 44 Highland Road, Bethel Park, PA 15102
  • Collect
    • Consider setting up a Giving Tree in a specific location at church, at work or at special events where you may have access, such as craft fairs and holiday bazaars.  Or bundle checks from family or friends for the Sewing Scholarship at these suggested levels: $100 for recipient equipment; $250 for ¼ tuition; $500 for ½ tuition or business startup (approved business plan required); $1,000 full tuition.

On January 27, 2019, Ava Ekstam of Seneca Valley High School hosted a sewing party at Dulith UMC. This was the first sewing party held in the North Hills of Pittsburgh.  Many thanks to all who participated.  For more information contact Bonnie Lawson.
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Sewing party at Dulith UMC
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Bonnie Lawson, Ava Ekstam, Debbie Little

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