In celebration of Women’s History Month, Jennifer Kaiser, founder of The Restoration Hem Project, will speak tonight, March 8 at 6:00 p.m. in Grupp Fireside Lounge.
Jennifer Kaiser is a graduate of the University of Southern Florida, Tampa. After moving to Atlanta, she became involved in community volunteering and service-based projects with her church. Those projects, she says, “…ignited in me a desire to better understand the injustices and struggles that people face outside my suburban reality.”
While in Zimbabwe, Kaiser was particularly struck by the lack of the simplest resources, including underwear and feminine hygiene supplies. She learned that a girl will miss an average of 60 days of school per year due to lack of feminine hygiene products. This leaves girls vulnerable to an elevated school dropout rate, early marriage, sexual exploitation and infection and disease.
The Restoration Hem Project is built on the belief that every girl deserves uninhibited access to life’s opportunities. The project brings girls local access to sustainable feminine hygiene solutions and empower them to boldly pursue their dreams and education. Kaiser now spends time between the U.S., where she works at the Georgia Aquarium and Zimbabwe, where she and a group of local girls began sewing reusable sanitary pad kits and preparing feminine hygiene seminars for rural schools.
Please join us to learn how the Restoration Hem Project is impacting our own Buffalo homeless, immigrant and refugee communities through the work of the Canisius College Women & Gender Studies Club.
Sponsored by the Women & Gender Studies Program, Women and Gender Studies Club and the Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library and Archives and Special Collections, the event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
For more information contact Kathleen DeLaney, librarian, archives and special collections at delaneyk@canisius.edu.
Submitted by: Kathleen DeLaney, librarian, archives and special collections
