CHENNAI : On the occasion of International Women’s Day, GEO India Foundation held a walkathon of about 900 metres to highlight the need for women empowerment, on Friday at Besant Nagar. Titled Wonder Women Power Walk, the event was held to raise awareness on health and hygiene.
Following the walkathon, the volunteers of GEO foundation headed to the YMCA girls school in Kottivakkam and provided about 1,000 sanitary napkins. “If a girl does not have access to sanitary pads or a safe and clean place at school to change them, it becomes another reason to keep her at home. She starts missing a few days every month, she falls behind, and she may eventually drop out.
Keeping girls in school is important to health and development — not only for the girls, but for their communities and the country,” said J George, managing trustee of GEO Foundation. They also provided the school with a vending machine and said that sanitary napkins will be refilled every 15 days.
Also, GEO Foundation plans to distribute sanitary napkins toabout one lakh underprivileged girls in rural areas in the next six months. Rajasekaran Sivaprakasan, director of Kals Group, Uppiliappan Gopalan, chief sales and marketing officer, Kals Group; ASIR Pandiyan, general secretary of YMCA, and Priya Jammema, founder and CEO of GEO India Foundation were present at the event.