Elm Grove Sanctuary Trust Encouragement Grant for 2023 to Elka Wood of Bega

Elm Grove Sanctuary Trust, is pleased to announce that their Encouragement Grant for 2023 has been awarded to Elka Wood of Bega and her project ‘Celebra on Days for Girls’.

Elka has two children and in watching them grow she recalls her own childhood and the transi on from child to adult. Realising that it can be a lonely and confusing me, Elka has felt passionate about helping young people access all the informa on that they need, as well as the importance of face-to-face connec on and the support of community during this me.

TheTrust’s annual Encouragement Grant of $2,000 is offered with the inten on to support early ini a ves by individuals, or groups, that offer hope for humanity through their endeavours. Especially when offering projects for young people, marginalised people, and all whose lives might be enriched through caring, especially at this me with the major challenges that face us all.

Elka Wood’s project Celebra on Days for Girls focuses on the cusp of puberty (approximately 9 – 13 years) or in the early stages of transi on, and the day offers a sharing circle which includes mothers, female caregivers and also older teenage mentors.

Elka describes these days, “it begins with a shared morning tea and then me without the mums when the girls are offered comprehensive period educa on and ac vi es which focus on living cyclically. Then, a er lunch, the girls make fresh flower crowns for when the mothers come back to crown their daughters in a small ceremony. These days can create a posi ve experience of first menstrua on and begin to untangle the menstrual taboos that leave so many who feel alone in their menstrual experience. In hearing the first period stories of a variety of older women, not just from their own mothers, this allows the girls to realise that half of the world’s popula on is having a menstrual cycle and that without this totally normal and feminine effort, humanity would cease to exist.”

Anyone interested to know more can contact Elka by email at theovula onelk@gmail.com