Lunapads Blog

As many of you are already aware, Lunapads offers cost-priced Pads4Girls Kits that can be purchased by customers, which are then given to girls and birthing women in Africa.  The way it works is that we are approached by individuals or NGOs who work with girls and women in need (Imagine1Day Ethiopia and Shanti Uganda are two Vancouver-based examples) who we then add to the list of potential recipients for customer donations. Customers buy the kits, and we give them to the groups who then distribute them to the recipients – all good.

That said, like so many other things in life, Pads4Girls isn’t perfect.  First, the obvious problem that we can’t reach everyone who needs supplies.  Second, there are not always the necessary supporting resources available (education, water and stable living situations come to mind) in every community that make using cloth pads easy.  Finally, while Pads4Girls kits help thousands of girls and women, they are still being shipped half way around the world.  We are thrilled to tell you about a new initiative that takes this work several steps further, as well as how a little holiday gift-giving can help to support it.

Elizabeth Scharpf is as striking in person as her accomplishments and vision are on paper.  Tall, grounded, deeply compassionate and extremely smart were both my first and lasting impressions of her.  Elizabeth is the founder of Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), a unique social profit that seeks to empower women and girls both physically and financially.

While working on economic policy (think World Bank and Clinton Foundation level) Elizabeth came to understand the impact that girls missing school and women missing work due to unmanaged menses was having.  She then asked herself what was going to make a bigger difference: the report that she was writing “that nobody was going to read anyway” (her words), or finding a way to help girls stay in school and women get back to work? Thus SHE was born.

Her innovative business plan has since received some high-profile and well-deserved accolades, funding and recognition, most recently at the Clinton Global Initiative.  We were thrilled to meet Elizabeth in person (who changed her flight time on a stop over in San Francisco just so she could meet with us!) and discuss our shared commitment to helping girls and women in developing nations improve their lives with better access to menstrual supplies.

Here’s how SHE works: Elizabeth has found a way to take what would otherwise be agricultural waste (banana leaves, in this case) and make them into disposable (biodegradable and chemical-free) menstrual pads that cost about $0.10 each (pictured with Elizabeth above).  As if this were not fantastic enough, she is also lining up willing would-be women entrepreneurs with loans to finance 80% of startup costs to make and distribute the pads.  The pilot project is happening right now in Rwanda (she now lives part-time in Kigali) and she has plans to take it wherever it’s needed.

In the spirit of the holidays, Lunapads is supporting SHE by donating 20% of sales of our Holiday Pantyliner Gift Pack (Organic Handkerchief 3 Packs as well, for the non-menstruators on your list!) from this very minute until December 31st.  Yes, that’s right – you can buy beautiful, inexpensive, sustainable, pre-wrapped gifts for your friends, at the same time supporting one of the most promising large-scale initiatives to help girls in developing nations get the education they need to better their and their countries’ futures – how good it that!?  If you and your friends are already well-stocked with pantyliners and handkerchiefs but you want to help, please consider making a cash donation directly to SHE here.

Thanks, and happy holidays from all of us at Lunapads!