Lunapads Blog

We are delighted to announce our deepened partnership with two amazing organizations (Shanti Uganda, Imagine1Day) who are doing groundbreaking work for girls and birthing women in Africa, and have an exciting update about another organization (Afripads) inspired by Lunapads.

Shanti Uganda
Last month, Madeleine represented Lunapads at the Shanti Uganda art auction fundraising dinner event which raised over $15,000 in support of the construction of a birth clinic, as well as supplies for birthing women.  The image below is of Ugandan Midwives with donated Lunapads that will be included in the birth kits.

Imagine1day
About nine months ago, we were introduced to Sapna Dayal, executive director of imagine1day (check out our blog post and video interview with Sapna here).  Through our collective efforts, Sapna was supplied with twelve Pads4Girls kits for her trip to Tigray, Ethiopia in May 2009.  Upon her return, Sapna provided us with a very moving report on the effect our Pads4Girls kits had on the school girls and the enlightening discussion she had about menstruation with them.  To her surprise, the imagine1day team was invited back to the school the following week to attend to a play written and performed by the school girls, about the importance of school and how cloth pads could help girls stay in school during their menses.  Click here to watch the play and read the story behind Sapna’s visit to the Wazza school.

For us, seeing the video and hearing Sapna’s story gave us, and those who have contributed to our Pads4Girls campaign, living proof that providing cloth pads to African girls who live thousands of miles away is in fact having an immediate impact on their lives.

In recent news, imagine1day has announced plans to build 5 latrines in Tigray.  As part of this initiative (and inspired by the impact that our cloth pads had on the Wazza school), imagine1day will work closely with the communities’ Women’s Associations and Gender Equity School Clubs to encourage dialogue about menstruation in an effort to curtail drop outs that this stage of life often causes. Each community will be provided with 10 Pads4Girls kits to facilitate this conversation.  We’re very excited about this new level of partnership we’ve struck with imagine1day.  Stay tuned for news next spring as we continue to deepen our partnership with imagine1day with hopes share our model to inspire other organizations to provide girls in Africa with cloth pads.

AfriPads
In related news, AfriPads is not only up and running, but in “high gear”!  Started by Carrie Jane Williams (who we blogged about in January 2009) and her colleagues Sonja and Pauls in Masaka Uganda, AfriPads is a grass roots socially-minded business that employs and trains young women to sew cloth pads (that have been styled from Lunapads).  They moved into a larger space (pictured) and have a 2010 growth plan to manufacture and sell 60,000 kits.  They are looking to partner with other NGOs to help pay for the costs of the pads, because girls simply can’t afford to pay the basic cost of the pads.To learn more, check out their website to meet the sewers and support their work.  We are very proud to have been part of the inspiration for this amazing venture and hope to see it replicated in other parts of Africa and around the world.

Please drop us a line to tell us of any news you hear about how cloth pads are making a difference in developing nations!

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