YORK Minster celebrated UN International Day of the Girl Child by hosting over 60 young people from York schools to take part in a Days for Girls workshop, sponsored by Rotary York Ainsty, making feminine hygiene kits for girls in developing countries.

Students from Fulford, Archbishop Holgate’s, Bootham, Manor Academy and The Mount schools all participated, working enthusiastically to make the brightly coloured washable re-usable feminine hygiene kits which will help to change girls’ lives.

In many countries, due to poverty, girls can’t go to school during menstruation, therefore missing large parts of their schooling. These attractive kits will last girls up to three years, and enable them to attend school every day, giving them equal opportunities in education.

Some students from Manor Church of England Academy will go out to Malawi with their principal, teachers and parents on October 26 to visit projects with which Manor Academy has had a long association.

This year the girls who attended the workshop in York Minster will become the ambassadors for Days for Girls York and take kits to show Malawian school girls how to make their own out of local materials.

We can be really proud of our young people from these schools in York who are reaching out to others in developing countries to help give them access to health, hygiene and dignity and, like themselves, equal opportunities.

Issy Sanderson, Days for Girls workshops co-ordinator, Rotary York Ainsty