Lunapads Blog

Pads4Girls has taken many shapes over the years, from making and sending out Kits ourselves, to supporting padmaking workshops to inspiring full-blown businesses. The most recent iteration is called Transformation Textiles, where our role has been as relationship connectors and fundraisers.

If I were to go all the way back on this story, this would be a very long post indeed. Rachel Starkey is one of our all-time Pads4Girls supersheroes. A professional garment manufacturer by trade (I should add that she’s also a nurse, Mother of four and social change visionary into the bargain), she is also a longtime friend and colleague. She credits her original inspiration for making something useful out of waste to a blog post we wrote about Tsunamika dolls in 2007. What could she make out of the waste fabric from her factory, she wondered?

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What if you could take something that was going to be either burnt, landfilled or made into plastic pellets, and make it into something highly useful that could have a major social impact for very little money? Cool, right? We call it Transformation Textiles (TT), it rocks, and this is how it works.

Major sporting goods companies and mass market retailers make bathrobes, tank tops, track pants etc by the millions in factories located primarily in developing nations. You knew that. What you may not know is what that actually looks like. Consumers typically focus on things like worker safety, fair wages and factory conditions in these transactions: fair enough – they are super-important issues. What you may not have thought about, though, is the waste that it generates. Imagine rolling out dough and cutting cookies from it – the pattern pieces for making clothes are the same as the cookie cutters, and the fact that they’re not square means that there will be leftover dough – or fabric in this case. Normally this waste, called “offcuts”, is thrown away.

While most offcuts aren’t big enough to make anything large, there is ample opportunity to place patterns for small things (say for example menstrual pads, or parts of a pair of underwear), or things that could be pieced together, in the master marker – all it takes is willingness on behalf of the manufacturer. Rachel Starkey is a longtime friend, colleague and Pads4Girls supporter who is pioneering this thought-leading movement.

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Anna Ebert wrote to us in March of 2012 to inquire whether we might be able to supply 50,000 Pads4Girls kits: we were amazed! It has taken some time to work out the details, however we are thrilled to announce that distribution of 10,000 “Transformation Textiles” (pads and panties made from waste fabric from mass-scale garment production) Kits will commence in July 2012.

For just $5, you can donate a kit made of 3 pairs of adjustable-size panties and 6 pads to a girl in need – thanks to Anna and Transformation Textiles. Donate here.

Here is Anna’s story about her work in Malawi and why she reached out to us:

“I work amongst the Tumbuka tribe in northern Malawi. There are approximately 1.4 million people there. I feel they are a forgotten people; difficult to reach….but not impossible.

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A week ago Suzanne and I presented our first TED talk as part of the Berlin-based TEDxChange event that was also held at satellite locations in 193 cities. TEDxChange was convened by Melinda Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (the event’s strategic partner), the theme was “The Big Picture”, with a stated goal of addressing global issues. Here in Vancouver the banner was flown by TEDxKids@BC, a dynamic, youth-focused TEDx chapter.

What’s not to love about TED talks? Some of our office faves include Simon Sinek’s Start with Why, Brene Brown’s The Power of Vulnerability and Leymah Gwobee’s Unlock the intelligence, passion, greatness of girls. What knocked our socks off about the @BCKids event was that a bunch of teenagers and young adults could be as poised and confident in telling their stories as you would expect from a seasoned TED speaker. Not to mention the gravity of issues and experiences that they brought to light: check out these examples.

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Happy International Women’s Day! In celebration, we are participating in in the Blog for International Women’s Day event co-hosted by Gender Across Borders and CARE. This year’s theme is Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.

As The Girl Effect has so eloquently explained; girls are the key to ending the cycle of poverty in the developing world.  The trouble is that there are countless barriers preventing them from achieving their potential, education being a big one. According to The Girl Effect; ” an educated girl will invest 90% of her future income in her family, compared to 35% for a boy.” Since women are still the primary caregivers and educators of children in most parts of the world, an educated girl will have the best chance of effecting future generations by passing on her skills and knowledge to her children. While there are many barriers to accessing education for girls, one reason is of particular relevance to Lunapads; as much as 10% of school-age African girls miss up to 20% of their education because of a lack of access to affordable menstrual products -their periods prevent them from attending school. When menstrual products are available and affordable, their communities often lack the waste management systems to properly deal with the resulting trash, creating a huge environmental problem.

We have a solution to overcome this barrier, in the form of washable menstrual pads and a devoted group of donors and supporters, but we lack the ability to deliver and distribute our pads to the communities that need them. This is why Lunapads has been partnering with NGOs and individuals since 2000, to bring a sustainable solution to those in need.

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Sapna Dayal is the executive director of imagine1day, a Vancouver-based charity and Pads4Girls partner since 2009. imagine1day is working to improve access to education in Ethiopia. To donate to imagine1day’s Pads4Girls fund, click here. We interviewed Sapna to learn more about what her organization is all about.

What is your organization’s mission/mandate?
Our mission is developing leaders to elevate the world and our goal is: All Ethiopians have access to quality education funded free of foreign aid by 2030.

What involvement have you had with Pads4Girls?
Our involvement started in 2008 when Pads4Girls sent us to Ethiopia with several kits to share with girls attending imagine1day’s primary schools.  We used the kits as a catalyst for a bigger conversation about the importance of gender equity in education and the barriers girls in Ethiopia face in completing primary and high school.

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Celeste Mergens is the director of Days for Girls International, a Pads4Girls sister organization and distributing partner since 2008. Days for Girls  is one of our largest partners, working in 22 countries around the world, with volunteer chapters in states across the US as well as Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Their legions of volunteers sew home-made cloth pads, assemble kits and hold fundraising events in their home countries and then travel overseas to distribute the kits and provide education and training to girls and women. Days for Girls has recently expanded their efforts to include setting up micro-enterprises in communities enabling women to make kits for their own community. To donate to Days For Girls, click here and read on to learn more about the work they are doing!

What is your organization’s mission/mandate?
Every girl in the world deserves education, dignity and quality sanitation.

Days for Girls International is committed to empowering every woman in the world through quality sustainable hygiene solutions and women’s reproductive education. We do this by proving sanitary solutions via a volunteer network worldwide and by teaching women in the communities they are needed in to teach others how to make their own. This has such a phenomenal impact that our tagline is “World Peace, One Pad at a Time”

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Warren Te Brugge is the founder of My Arms Wide Open, a Vancouver based foundation working with women, children and youth in South Africa.  Pads4Girls is currently raising funds to provide My Arms Wide Open with Pads4Girls Kits for 1,500 girls in the communities of Bergnek, Limpopo and Cradock, Eastern Cape in South Africa. To donate to the My Arms Wide Open Pads4Girls fund click here.

What is your organization’s mission/mandate?
My Arms Wide Open® Foundation provides support for mothers, children, and youth to build sustainable communities and responsible businesses. Our purpose is to rebuild communities through supporting mothers, children and youth to break the chain of their parents’ past prejudice, to create community and preserve their culture.

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On Thursday, March 8th, Lunapads will be participating in the Blog for International Women’s Day event co-hosted by Gender Across Borders and CARE.

This year’s theme is Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures. We will be writing about our Pads4Girls program, with a strong focus on the organizations we partner with and the differences they are making in the communities they serve.

Other writers, bloggers and humanitarian organizations are also encouraged to participate by addressing one or both of the following points on their blog or website:

1. How can we, as a culture and as members of the global community, involve, educate, and inspire girls in a positive way?
2. Describe a particular organization, person, group or moment in history that helped to inspire a positive future and impact the minds and aspirations for girls.

Anyone interested can find more information and add themselves to the list of participants here: http://genderacrossborders.com/blogforiwd

You can also participate in Blog for International Women’s Day on your social media outlets on Thursday, March 8. On Facebook, tag your responses with the Gender Across Borders Facebook page. On Twitter, you can use the hashtag #blogforiwd so we can all read your responses.

On Wednesday, March 7, Gender Across Borders will co-host She Party, a weekly virtual happy hour hosted by the Women’s Media Center. From 3-5pm EST, we will discuss the theme of “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.” Log on to Twitter and search the #sheparty hashtag to join the conversation.