Everest climber’s gesture to girls

Ongole: A girl, who was born and brought up in USA, but having roots in Prakasam district, donated all the sponsorship money, she received while scaling the Mount Everest in 2017 to a noble cause, educating girls on hygiene during menstrual period. She visited Ongole on Sunday and distributed one-year stock of sanitary pads to girls from the poor and rural background at various institutions in the town.

Vattikuti Vennela lives in Dallas and attends a local school. She loves trekking and scaled the Mount Everest in April 2017. Being born into the family of a doctor, she learnt the importance of personal hygiene and decided to donate the money she received from sponsorships to the girls who do not have access to menstrual pads. She said that she chose Asha Jyothi Handicapped Welfare Society run by M Madhavi Latha, Chairperson of Child Welfare Committee in West Godavari district, who produces sanitary napkins in a small scale and donates them to the poor girls.

Madhavi Latha said that they produce the napkins under the brand PARI, supported by the Save the Child Foundation. She said that they have already donated about two lakh sanitary napkins to the poor and rural students studying in the schools run by NGOs and missionaries as the government is distributing them for free in the residential hostels of girls. She said that Vennela donated about Rs 4 lakh to them, with which more than one lakh napkins can be distributed to the girls.

NVS Rammohan, secretary of HELP NGO, said that about 45 per cent of the adolescent girls in the country lacks awareness on hygiene and health. He said that it is also the reason for their suffering from illness and metal stress in the menstrual period.

Vennela, who would be the star campaigner for the PARI napkins, said that they are looking for more sponsors so that the effective cost of the napkins will be reduced and more number of the girls would be benefitted. She distributed the PARI sanitary napkins to a few girls at the Press Club and to nearly 300 girls at St Xavier’s High School and a few girls of Social Welfare Hostel in Ongole.

She announced that they are ready to supply one-year stock of napkins to the girls, and asked the interested school managements to contact Cherukuri Bharati, Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee in Prakasam district. She urged the government to extend free distribution of napkins scheme to the day scholars also so that they will not skip the classes or exams in the period.

Convener of Andhra Pradesh Forum of Child Welfare Committee BVS Kumar and representatives of various women and child welfare organisations also present in the programme.