Keeping girls in schools with feminine hygiene kits

by Anne Marie Cox | January 22, 2025

For 10 years, Cindy Pierce has been helping girls on the other side of the world. This week, she finally met Hilda, her partner in South Africa, who is helping her make a much needed product: reusable feminine hygiene kits for girls.

Cindy is on a mission trip with 9 others to South Africa with Father Ray McHenry and Blessman International.

Cindy, of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in West Des Moines, began her ministry after Father McHenry first brought a group of St Francis parishioners on a mission trip with Blessman International 10 years ago.

Poor women in South Africa can’t run out to the store to buy feminine hygiene products. They don’t have the money. As a result, girls have to stay home from school one week each month. Over four years of high school, the time off amounts to one whole year of lost studies, Cindy said.

The first missionaries returning from their trip vowed to do something to help girls. A partnership began with a group called Days for Girls. After some time, sewers created their own pattern and called it a Blessman kit. Now, they’re partnering with a group called So Powerful.

Sewers in the states make purses and sewers in South Africa make the reusable menstrual kits that go in the purses and distribute them where needed.

“I think it’s a great program. It’s doing a couple of things. It’s employing people in South Africa, and it’s keeping girls in school,” Cindy said.

She spent a few hours with her South African friend, Hilda, on Monday going through kits sent from St Francis and other churches to ensure they’re ready for distribution.

Anyone interested in helping can reach out to Cindy through Blessman International, based in Urbandale.

“It’s nice to be involved in something that’s helping someone else,” she said. “It’s for the kids. It’s for the girls.”