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School Girls in Africa: Part 1

protectingfutures School Girls in Africa: Part 1

This is one of two entries about the issue of girls in Africa missing school due to not having menstrual products, including the current Always and Tampax campaign to “donate” disposable pads to girls in Africa. Below is a guest post from Christina Vogel, a customer in Des Moines IA, who eloquently articulates what many of us at Lunapads, as well as our colleagues and customers, have expressed about the campaign. The second entry is about a new organization, Goods 4 Girls, that is working to address this issue in a sustainable way, as well as a new Lunapads Good 4 Girls Kit that customers can donate.

“I also wanted to tell you about a conversation I had over an Always commercial. They showed a young girl in Africa that could not go to school because of her period. They stated that their company sends their products so that girls like her don’t miss out on an education. As I watched this commercial I realized that giving them disposable pads and tampons in an area that does not have sanitation set up is not truly helping their situation. Nor does it truly help empower women by holding them down to a company that they will have to use for the majority of their life. I started to think about your products and how truly helpful they are. They are made with a woman’s needs in mind and are not a continuous buying process. Last but not least they do not require the a sanitation process after use. You can simply wash and reuse. I am currently looking into setting up funding to buy your products and send them to women across the world that need these products to go to school, work, or complete their daily lives, without harming their environment. I once again would like to thank you for your products not only for the ease that they have brought to my life, but the ease that I hope they bring to women all across the world!”

pixel School Girls in Africa: Part 1
  • Lindsay

    This is a fabulous idea. I don’t think those other companies have considered the consequences of sending disposable products to Africa. How many remote villages have weekly trash pickup? How comfortable are plastic pads going to be in a hot climate? What are the fiscal and environmental costs of continuously shipping boxes of disposables to these girls? The solution proposed by Goods 4 Girls is by far the best. Big kudos to you all!

  • Anna

    I was wondering the same thing as I saw that commercial. I’m also wondering if they will send them for free for a time and then start charging them, like Nestle did with formula.

  • Eileen

    To be honest, I was borderline horrified when I saw that Tampax commercial the first time. I thought ‘Nice idea but you are a little off, there’s a way better way to go about that one.’

    And then like Anna, I started to wonder what the potential ‘catch’ was.

    Cloth makes so much more sense… I wouldn’t expose a woman in Africa to the chemicals in Tampax, or the waste, when I won’t do it to myself!!!!

    Personally, I think it’s a sale gimmick… as pessimistic as that may sound. Everyone is out to make a buck on Africa right now, and it’s disgusting. Accepting donations, yes. Saying buy this and we’ll donate… I don’t like that.

  • Amanda

    I think that this is a wonderful idea!

    But, I also think it’s wonderful what Tampax is doing – even if I do flinch whenever I see the commercial. As much as I don’t agree with disposable products, and as bad for our health as they may be, helping is helping. And sales pitch or not (cause I certainly don’t trust big business), someone is being helped – if only for a minuscule amount of time. In an ideal world, of course giving a more sustainable option would happen… but in an ideal world no one would even know what Tampax is!

    Sanitation has been mentioned in the blog and in the 2 posts before mine, but there are so many other factors. How sanitary even is a reusable pad if a clean water source isn’t available for these girls to clean their pads? I read recently that something like 14 countries in Africa are under water stress right now – and it’s growing.

    And there is also the HIV/AIDS factor – since it can be caught from menses.

    I’m not trying to be a Negative Nancy or anything, and I certainly do not support Tampax in any way, but there are negatives to either option in this case, and I think the most important thing here is that these girls are getting the education they need and deserve.

    Hooray for Lunapads for these kits! But I think I can muster even the tiniest bit of a hooray for Tampax for at least helping to raise awareness of the issue and providing a little bit of help.

  • Brittany

    Wow. Let me start by saying that I am relieved that other people also found those commercials disturbing in the implications they have for our sisters in Africa.
    And thank you, thank you, to Goods 4 Girls and Lunapads for not only acknowledging this potential hazard, but for addressing it with these kits. I am so thrilled that action is being taken to help supply women and girls with sustainable, reusable products. I love Lunapads; I love sharing the concept with my friends and family stateside, and I am so glad that these organizations are working to better the lives of these women in girls in such a philanthropic and selfless way. Kudos!

  • Becky

    I second the concern about whether the girls in Africa would have a good source of clean water for cleaning the Lunapads, but I do see that the Good 4 Girls site addresses this.

    As for the trash, this may vary by area, but trash is burnt at home daily in many third world countries. Yes, it’s still wasting resources, and it’s a pollutant, but it’s not necessarily unsanitary.

    Lunapads may be the best option for many areas in Africa, but a disposable option may be the best in other regions.

  • Catherine

    I find it incredible that anyone believes that a corporation is doing anything but lining their own pockets. THAT IS WHY THE CORPORATION EXSISTS. To the person that mentioned Nestle: EXACTLY. Peeps! THIS is a COMMERCIAL, an ADVERTISMENT for a product they are SELLING It has NOTHING to do with the actuality of “girls” lives in Africa. If the corporation was being truly unselfish they would provide what they think the “girls” needed and they wouldn’t be exploiting the young women for marketing reasons. I.E. WE WOULDN’T KNOW ABOUT IT! The companies are selling YOU 2 things: Themselves as “virtuos” capitalists AND their product. BTW, what website is this on? Think about it!

    Have you asked yourself what is happening when you are in the line-up at A MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION AND they ask if you want to donate x dollars to x charity. Is it not about the company being able to say THEY donated to x charity (when in fact at least 50% of the dollars came from individuals donating at their cash registers?) Do you feel more inclined to buy a product from a company that says they are donating something? THIS IS MARKETING, in my opinion.

    Further, women have had periods for a few years before Tampax/Always have been around. ‘IF’ young women cannot go to school because of having their periods it is about a lot more than the need for a commercial product. And please understand that I’m not preaching the “other” as oppressed. Let’s start in our own backyards.

  • addajudy

    we need some in ghana

  • Sylvie

    I echo all the sentiments of the previous comments. And especially feel for women who do not have accesss to clean water for washing purposes. Perhaps LunaPads and one of the really cool new completely-biodegradable diaper companies could team up to create an environmental solution that could be sterilized, then buried! It’s so hard to understand how in the thousands of years of women,(and children and men too) we have yet to come up with THE solutions for our discharges and our waste management in general. I use a Diva cup, and pads for extra security and overnight-all require cleaning-and I still think there must be a better way!