377th Medical Group partners with Women to Be

  • Published
  • By Argen Duncan
  • Nucleus writer
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  The efforts of a group of Kirtland Airmen and their families will help empower Nepalese girls by giving them hygiene items to allow them to stay in school.

Christine Glidden, who has participated in the Kirtland Air Force Base Honorary Commanders Program for six years, asked 377th Medical Group Commander Col. Jeffrey White to help with Women to Be, a local nonprofit group she founded.

Inspired by a friend who grew up in a refugee camp in Nepal, Glidden runs Women to Be to provide feminine hygiene kits with reusable items to Nepalese girls.

In mid-March, about 20 people from the medical group, including spouses and children, worked for several hours to sort items into kits and box them up for shipping. They completed 500-600 kits.

"It really put into perspective things we take for granted here, things like soap and rags," said Airman 1st Class Darence Richardson, a medical group member who helped with the effort.

He said it was good to see how privileged Americans are compared to people, especially women, in other countries, where residents can't simply go to a store to get basic necessities.

White and his wife, Heidi, took home enough items for 400 more kits, and Heidi and a group of women finished sorting and boxing them.

"She rescued me," Glidden said of Heidi.

Glidden plans to spend five weeks distributing 1,000 kits to girls in Nepal's remote, "desperately poor" Kingdom of Mustang starting in mid-April.

"A thousand girls -- if their lives can become changed, they can change the economic status of that entire area," Glidden said.

Girls in developing nations often don't have access to feminine hygiene necessities, so they regularly miss school.

"A lot of girls drop out because they can't keep up, or maybe she has an embarrassing episode at school," Glidden said.

Then, the girl marries in her teens and begins having a baby every year even though her body isn't prepared for it.

Girls who stay in school learn a skill, delay marriage, have fewer children and make an income 30 percent higher for life, Glidden said.

"She can support herself -- she can support her children -- regardless of what happens to the man," Glidden continued. "... They become village leaders; they become economic drivers."

She said women with more education have more confidence and tend to speak out against domestic violence and war.

Glidden visited the Kingdom of Mustang on a Himalayan trek several years ago and grew to love it and its people. For her upcoming trip, she has the support of the local prince and the president, a woman.

White, who's a Women to Be board member, thought sorting the hygiene items was a good project. Members of the medical group have diverse backgrounds, including an Airman from Nepal, and want to help others, he said.

He enlisted the help of the Company Grade Officer Council and Airmen Committed to Excellence, of which Richardson is president.

"You're doing more than just volunteer work," White said, adding that the effort gave participants a chance to get to know each other better, which draws the unit closer together.

Airmen Committed to Excellence Treasurer Airman 1st Class T'Nava Brown said the project was interesting because of how it helped young women.

"I was privileged enough to help out and honored to contribute to such an impact," she said.

For more information about Women to Be or to contribute time or money, visit women2be.org or email action@women2be.org.