YORK Minister provided grand surroundings to a charity drive to provide basic hygiene kits to women in need.

The Minster’s North Transept was transformed into a giant sewing workshop for the global “hands on” project Days for Girls which aims to aid education, hygiene and dignity for girls and women across the world.

Lack of access to affordable, feminine hygiene products during menstruation has serious consequences for many girls, including missing school days and risk of infection from using improvised materials.

Days for Girls has devised a practical, low cost, re-usable solution in the form of a kit which uses brightly patterned cottons to sew cleverly designed pads and covers which are then packed into attractive drawstring bags.

These can be easily sewn by hand or with a sewing machine.

Each kit includes underwear, a wash cloth and strong polythene zip-locked bags to enable the soiled items to be washed easily – particularly important in areas where water is scarce.

On Monday 100 volunteers formed a mini-production line in the Minster to create the kits across two sessions, supported by Rotary York Ainsty.

Issy Sanderson, the co-ordinator of Days for Girls workshops in York said: “Over the last five years, kits produced in York have been sent to Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Nepal and the expertise has been shared with women in these countries who are now making the kits locally for their communities.

“This work is helping to improve the lives of women and girls in some of the poorest communities in the world.”