• Rotary Year: 2018-2019
  • Application Date: 5/30/2018
  • Club Name: Forest
  • Project Name: WINGS Health and Hygiene in Burundi, Africa – To reach 1,000 girls and women
  • Project Total Expenditures: $15,000.00
  • Grant Amount Requested: $1,000.00
  • Describe the Project, its location and its objectives: According to the World Bank’s Toolkit on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in schools, “Menstruation may seriously affect girls' attendance, attention, and achievement in school in both rural and urban areas… if the materials she has are unreliable and cause embarrassment, she may be forced to stay at home while menstruating. This absence of approximately 4 days every 4 weeks may result in the girl missing 10 to 20 percent of her school days. Inevitably, it will be difficult for a girl who misses so much schoolwork to keep up.”

    The WINGS program directly addresses these needs through the production and distribution of wash-and-reuse menstrual pads as part of feminine hygiene kits that can last a woman or girl three to four years. Each kit includes: a pictorial instruction sheet, two pairs of undergarments, two moisture barriers, eight reusable liners, two bars of soap, two washcloths, and two one-gallon resealable plastic bags all within a cloth drawstring bag. The materials cost of each feminine hygiene kit is about $15 – far less expensive than three to four years’ worth of disposable products.

    A $2,000 total grant ($1,000 from Rotary Club of Forest and $1,000 from District 7570) would enable over 130 girls with dignity, empowerment and freedom. Rotary Club of Forest will help cut the fabric, sew the components and assemble the WINGS kits. In addition, Rotary Club of Forest will complete a health and hygiene curriculum to educate young women. This project will take place at the Gleaning For The World Volunteer Center in Concord, Virginia. Rotary Club of Forest would be able to complete the production of the WINGS kits in one to three sewing and packing sessions. The kits would then be sent to Burundi Africa for distribution, edification and needed instruction.



  • This is the Club’s: Primary Project Application
  • Expected Start Date: 8/1/2018
  • Expected End Date: 3/10/2019
  • Expected Number of Beneficiaries: 1000
  • Describe how the project will benefit the community and/or improve the lives of the less fortunate: This project will benefit our community by raising awareness and knowledge of the less fortunate around the world, while creating camaraderie amongst Rotary Club of Forest, Gleaning For The World, and community volunteers to inspire others. The WINGS kits will immediately upon receipt in Burundi, Africa make a huge difference in improving the lives of girls and women.

    The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals estimates that women today have 450 periods during their lifetimes, which equates to 1,800 days – nearly 5 years in total – this is how many years we can add to a woman or girl’s life. We frequently receive reports of girls using ineffective methods of managing their periods, which often includes crude resources such as tree bark, corn husks, used newspaper, used rags, and banana leaves. Using such items can cause infection, severe pain, and other serious health issues. In addition to these physical ailments, women and girls sustain psychological injuries around the lack of dignity and the insecurity they experience, which directly affects their confidence to stay in school or work.

    In one country, a distributing partner for WINGS told Gleaning For The World, “The women and girls have no access to any feminine hygiene products and the girls have to stay home from school [during their monthly cycle]. They’re currently using rags, cardboard, and banana leaves… The education they will receive will truly make a difference for these young girls. With no exaggeration, for this group of girls, it can possibly break the cycle of poverty in their generation.” Three years later, this same distributing partner reported a significant increase in girls’ academic scores and school attendance. This District Grant can provide the same future for the girls and women in Burundi, Africa.
  • Estimated Total Project Volunteer Hours: 268
  • Describe the Rotarian hands-on activities in the project (i.e. non-financial participation): Forest Rotarians will be assisting in developing health and hygiene curriculum that will be country-specific using Gleaning For The World’s WINGS program template to better further the education of Burundians and those working in country. Forest Rotarians will also have the opportunity to assemble and put together over 130 WINGS kits that will help give dignity, empowerment and freedom to over 130 girls and women in Burundi, Africa. This process to cut fabric, sew the items and assemble the kit components requires over 268 hours of labor. (This averages out to almost 9 hours per club member.) Gleaning For The World will have experienced WINGS volunteers and coordinator’s assisting with the quality control and supervision of the WINGS kit making.



    Project Tentative Timeline:

    August 1st 2018-September 20th 2018: Gather supplies, sew and assemble WINGS kits
    September 30th 2018-October 30th 2018: Ship container with WINGS kits
    October 30th-early November – WINGS kits distributed and feminine hygiene received
    November 15th – First Report with WINGS kits
    February-March – Final report with WINGS kits, how they are benefiting the women and girls.

    *Any additional reports throughout the three years are possible to get as well


  • Describe the publicity plan to inform the general public that this is a Rotary sponsored project: For publicity, Rotary Club of Forest will:

    • contact Journey FM and see if they can announce our WINGS sewing and packing day
    • try to get on Living in the Heart of Virginia to discuss our District Grant project
    • send out a press release to all the local news stations and newspapers to see if they would like to run the story for us
    • post on Rotary Club of Forest Facebook page
    • display the Rotary Wheel and available signage at Gleaning For The World for hundreds of volunteers to see.


  • Cooperating Organizations – Please list each cooperating organization, if any: Gleaning for the World - WINGS program

    Gleaning for the World seeks to share the love of God locally and around the world through the efficient delivery of high quality, life-saving supplies to victims of poverty and devastation by connecting corporate surplus to critical needs. The WINGS program at Gleaning for the World particularly focuses on giving menstrual hygiene management supplies to girls and women all around the world. Encouraging them to stay in school, help them support their families and encourage them to contribute back into their communities.
  • Letter(s) of Participation: WINGS - Rotary letter of participation.docx
  • Project Expenditure Budget – list detail uses of funds for the project, or use the Budget Upload: See Budget Upload
  • Project Funding Budget – list detail sources of funds for the project, or use the Budget Upload: See Budget upload
  • Budget Upload:WINGS BudgetRotary-3 (1).xls
  • Primary Contact Name: Shannon Shaw
  • Primary Contact Rotary Position: President-Elect
  • Primary Contact Email: shannon@thinkinnovative.net
  • Primary Contact Phone: 434-525-9105
  • Financial Contact Name: Dana Guthrie
  • Financial Contact Rotary Position: Treasurer
  • Financial Contact Address: 
    31 Goldfinch Drive
    Lynchburg, VA 24502
    United States View on Map
  • Financial Contact Email: lovetotravel2@msn.com
  • Financial Contact Phone: 434-258-8536
  • District Grant Project Authorization LetterSigned WINGS Authoform.pdf
  • Project Supporting Uploads:WINGS Kit Components.docx
  • Grant Number: 1819-07
  • Grant Award: $1,000.00