Period Poverty remains one of the many global challenges that limit thousands of Liberian girls and women access to sanitation and tools needed for a healthy and safe menstruation. One cardinal reason this is possible is due to lack of access and lack of income. Girls in communities with low income identities tend to struggle for sanitary pads. Globally, 2.3 billion people live without basic sanitation services and in developing countries, only 27% of people have adequate handwashing facilities at home, according to UNICEF. She is currently on a tour targeting 22 communities across Montserrado Bomi and Margibi distributing free sanitary pad and awareness on menstrual hygiene. Queen Therchie humanitarian endeavor came at a moment where covid19 have exponentially limited girls access to Sanitary Pads with growth in poverty and increased in the prize for sanitary products.
Miss Therchie Williams is the reigning Queen of Miss philanthropy Africa. She hails from Maryland County; Liberia She is inspired by the everyday challenges of girl’s women and populations that are at risk. Through her crown she is combating on a journey to combat period poverty and advocate for a sustainable solution that would mitigate the plethora of challenges women and girls face with period poverty. Miss Philanthropy Africa Initiative (MPAI) is a community based non-governmental organization whose aim is to raise females that will advocate and ensure an improved quality of life for poor and downtrodden women and children in Africa; through diverse interventions in areas of value creation, education, empowerment and creation of platforms to effect development in the continent.
Miss Therchie fight for a better society did not begin with period poverty but a consistent initiative connected around some of the pressing issues in our country and Africa at large. After emerging as the winner of Miss District Six on November 17, 2018 she was vigorously involved in implementing and promoting youth education and charity work. Queen Therchie in her current role as Miss Philanthropy Africa, is leading change and promoting education against the rise in HIV and aids education among girls, while advocating for disability inclusions particularly women and girls. With her project that aims to promote equity and inclusion titled ‘Leave no one behind’ in Liberia, she is inspiring sustainable change in catering for persons with Disability, HIV patients and the less privileged in general and combating period poverty among girls.
In a conversation with our staff reporter, Queen Therchie shared that helping girls and women access basic tools that would help restore their confidence and have a safe menstrual circle is the happiest moment for her. She hopes that the government of Liberia can institute policies that provide free and unlimited sanitary pads to women and girls since it is a necessity or need. She ended that her role is simply to inspire change through humanitarian initiatives as such and doing it is a service to humanity, country and our global world.