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"When I started, I had no idea this was going to be a movement. I thought I was simply meeting the needs of these girls."
Talk about a grassroots movement. Celeste Mergens’ nonprofit organization, Days for Girls International, has triggered a global one. Since 2008, it has created access to washable and sustainable feminine hygiene products for nearly 800,000 women and girls worldwide, with help from a sprawling network of chapters and teams. And its microenterprise model is empowering many of the women to pull themselves out of poverty.
Mergens’ solution to this seldom-discussed universal feminine need makes it possible for girls to attend school uninterrupted while on their menstrual cycles and for women to go to work. From New Orleans to Nepal, Uganda to Guyana, she and her teams are sidestepping cultural taboos and helping women better understand their own bodies and discover ways to keep themselves safe.
“I don’t go into a slum and say ‘you poor, poor, people’ because I know, those are just circumstances…” she says. “You can spend a lot of money shaming people and not getting the results you seek.” But when you honor their wisdom and strength, says Mergens, you give them a stake in the solution and a seat at the table.
Mergens, a mother of six and grandmother of 15 who has been married for 35 years, is warm and gracious, and her interactions with staff and volunteers in DfG’s modest storefront headquarters in Bellingham, Wash., offers a glimpse into why people are drawn to her.
