Teaching Skills for Production
Lighting the Path is teaching sewing and production of washable, reusable feminine hygiene supplies in countries and areas where women and girls have no access to these supplies and they are greatly needed..
Women and girls need hygiene supplies to take care of their needs monthly and after childbirth. These supplies need to be inexpensive, safe and clean to help keep them healthy and allow them to live their life as normally as possible. An estimated 500 Million women and girls do not have supplies to meet their hygiene needs. When sanitary supplies are unavailable, women and girls are at risk for infections and illness from the use of unclean options such as grass, paper, dirty cloth rags and more.
We believe the washable and reusable pads are an answer to many of the issues and can meet the needs of millions of women and girls in need. There is only a one time cost and supplies are then available every month. there is no issue of waste disposal and no ongoing need once supplies are used up as with disposables. The Girls for Girls project is trying to address these issues and needs and we are excited to see strides being made in addressing these issues!
Micro finance
Lighting the Path offers micro finance assistance in special need situations. In impoverished communities there are often shortages in food, medication and other necessities which sometimes leads to special personal needs.
Parents are often desperate and worried about their children having enough food or getting needed medical care, especially when they have no way to meet these needs. The mother in the above picture has twins who were on the brink of starvation when she came to us. We assisted with care for the twins and taught her how to make food products including sugared peanuts. We set her up with cooking equipment and supplies to start her business and also taught her small business methods. She was very successful and was able to make a profit and grow her business by adding multiple products. We are delighted that the family is now thriving.
We have trained individuals and helped them establish a small enterprise when there are specific extreme needs which we are made aware of. Lighting the Path offers the micro finance assistance as a “pay it forward” model where we ask the individuals or groups to eventually set aside money from the profits, if they can, and give seed money in the future to someone in need to start their own small enterprise.