Atlanta Women Create Options for Young Women in Rural India

April 26, 2011 - PRLog -- A group of women in Atlanta have launched 50 Cents Period, a program seeking to raise both awareness and funds for girls in Hyderabad, India, specifically to provide support for supplies, facilities and health education related to menstruation.  For young women in this region, not only is menstruation often stigmatized, but it also serves as a significant impediment to education for families who cannot afford sanitary supplies, causing girls to miss a week of school each month. Consequently, they fall behind in their studies and often, instead of completing high school, enter the work force or get married and start having babies. Just 50 cents is all it takes to supply a young woman with sanitary supplies for a month, which in turn means she can go farther in her education and create more options for her own future and her family’s.

Calling themselves the Women in Red, the group of women who created 50 Cents Period will hold their first Red Party fund raiser on Friday, May 13, 2011. This invitation-only event will serve as the chief fund-raising vehicle for 50 Cents Period. A red theme will be carried out in the food, drink and décor as the Women in Red engage others in a cause that at its heart is universal to all women. Going forward, there will be a Red Party Kit on the 50 Cents Period website, 50centsperiod.org, to encourage other women to hold their own Red Parties.  The total fund-raising goal for 2011 is $20,000, which will provide supplies for 200 girls in two schools in Hyderabad as well as drill wells, build toilet facilities and install incinerators at the schools. The funds will also provide for 40 hours of hygiene education for the girls.

Lorrie Lynn King of the Clarkston-based nonprofit Just Cause, Inc., serves as 50 Cents Period’s liaison with the schools in Hyderabad that are piloting the program. “It is amazing how fast this idea is spreading,” says King. “We are already in conversation with schools in Nepal and Uganda about providing similar support. We are also looking at how we can help refugee girls who have been resettled in the Atlanta area. Also, every day we hear of more women all over the country who want to hold Red Parties, too. We’re having a blast doing something so simple that literally can change the future for young women in developing countries all over the world.”

More information can be found at www.50centsperiod.org