Lunapads Blog

As you may remember from a previous post a few weeks ago, we have been working in partnership with The Mariposa DR Foundation and The POWER project, a group of students from Seattle, to provide girls in the Dominican Republic with Pads4Girls Kits.

The 200 Kits arrived on April 6th! The Mariposas have posted a slew of gorgeous photos of the girls at the Puerto Cabarete school receiving the kits on their Facebook Page.

We are so proud and grateful for this incredible opportunity to support girls’ education. Thank you, Mariposas!

Related articles

• Our biggest Pads4Girls shipment! (lunapads.com)

Today is an exciting day at Lunapads: we’re sending out our largest Pads4Girls shipment ever!

Pads4Girls is an in-house project where we sell cost-priced daily hygiene kits to customers and non-profit groups to give to women and girls in developing countries. It can be hard to imagine, but lacking something as everyday as panties, pads or tampons is preventing girls in many parts of the world from going to school. Girls can miss up to 20% of their education, which can spiral into earlier dropout, marriage and childbirth, increased chances of maternal mortality, reduced career choices and wages, and a less empowered life overall.

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Back in October we received a donation request from Project Thrive, an organization that has been working hard to provide girls and women all over Africa with washable pads through their Days for Girls program. As you may recall, Lunapads helped out in getting The Days for Girls project started and we have been overjoyed to watch it grow over the years since. They accept donations of commercial and home-sewn cloth pads and other supplies to create “Hygiene Kits” for the girls. We were happy to offer them 35 pairs of Lunapanties and 500 Liner Inserts to help them meet their goal for the latest distribution.

Celeste from Project Thrive sent us the following story of how the distribution of the Kits in one community opened the door to discussion around FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and ultimately led to the abandonment of the practice.

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Jeannette wrote to us as a concerned mom who hopes that Lunapads will help her daughter have a happier period. Read on for their story, and our picks:

This is actually not for me, but for my 10 year old daughter.  She started menstruating recently and it really upsets her.  We are looking for something that is natural, environmentally friendly and won’t irritate her skin.  Also, regular pads can be loud and embarrassing.  I want her to feel like a goddess and not a slave to plastic!

Her period is 3 days heavy, 3 nights heavy, and 2 days light.  She is currently using Always overnights.  No matter what, she leaks through, and often out of the back of her undies and onto her bed.  We are too paranoid this early into her period to go lighter than overnights at any stage in her cycle.  Mine was very unpredictable when I was a kid, so we err on the side of caution.

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The Girls Rock Camp Alliance is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization where girls 8 to 18 can learn an instrument, form a band, write music, and rock out with other girls. If that’s not awesome enough for you, it’s also a place where girls attend self defense, body image, zine making, screen printing, and other self-esteem building workshops led by female mentors.

The very first ever Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls took place in Portland in 2001 — since then, camps have sprung up all over the world, and now more than 700 girls are mentored every year. This year, we’re sending gift certificates and Teen Booklets to the Girls Rock Camp Vancouver campers, and gift packs for the volunteers and organizers, too.

My own experience of being so profoundly influenced by the riot grrrl movement as a teenager makes it easy for me to wax poetic about how heartening and inspiring this all is.. but I’ll let the girls speak for themselves:

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We’ve had a great time celebrating Women’s Month with some awesome theme giveaways for Girls and Teens, Pregnant Gals, and Fence-sitters. It’s not too late to enter any of these, so for any of you who fall into these categories, read the posts and add your comment for a chance to win some Lunapads goodies!

Our final giveaway for the month was partially inspired by the recent discussion about the whole rationale for choosing natural menstrual products. Is it really “worth it”, and if so what did it mean to you?

For this final giveaway post we are looking for women who have recently switched to our products (post fence-sitters, if you will!) to talk about this very thing. In other words, what making the switch was like, how it may have surprised you or differed from your expectations, or what kind of a difference it has made for you.

New Lunagals, tell us your stories!

Post your comment below for a chance to win 1 of 3 $25 Lunapads.com Gift Certificates. Winners will be announced in our April newsletter, so stay tuned!

As you may be aware, we have declared March to be International Women’s Month here at Lunapads, and as part of that we are focusing on different groups of – (well, that part’s obvious!) Today, it’s time to send up a cheer for the future women out there: girls.

Where to start with the subject of girls? Our view is that girls are nothing less than the world’s greatest hope for healing, progress and peace. At Lunapads, we support them by supporting and spreading the word about a variety of organizations working with and for girls including Scarleteen, the Girl Effect (don’t miss their awesome video!), Camfed, Not For Sale and of course Pads4Girls. We also love progressive girls’ media like Shameless, New Moon and Teen Voices.

At Lunapads, 100% of the proceeds of the sale of Teen Booklets goes towards Pads4Girls. We also distribute free copies to organizations that are working with girls and teens.

What especially warms our hearts is when we get emails, phone calls and ‘live-chats’ from girls (or moms of girls and teens) asking great questions and telling us their stories. The day before yesterday we were visited by a Mom and her daughter who was on the second day of her first period – we felt really lucky to share some time with them, on International Women’s Day, no less!

Here’s a wonderful example of a girl’s self-expression about her first period – a bittersweet poem written by Lacy Hale. Lacy says: “The following is a poem that I wrote a couple years ago when I decided to make my change from commercial menstrual products to healthier, greener alternatives. When I was a teenager, I definitely thought of my period as a curse and dreaded it each month. Now that I’m older, I find that I actually enjoy my period, taking the time to reflect on my art, my life, and what it means to me to be a woman. “

My River

The summer that I started
Was desert-like and dry
Yet I awoke that morning shrouded in wet red rivers
Of which I had yet to learn the ebb
And flow.

Yelling for my mother,
It was no surprise to her
Because of the complaints
Concerning the belly
Of the 13 year old girl
The night before.

I suppose in some sort of celebration
She made a breakfast that morning
Of the likes I had rarely seen.

But my stomach was full
Of other things and pains
So new I barely touched
My biscuits
And gravy.

My father came home that evening
And without words or glance
Tossed my necessities on the counter.
A look of fear and anger in his eyes.

Or maybe I just misread it
Out of my own embarrassment.

This week we are giving away 3 Teen Kits: leave a comment here telling us about your favorite girl or teen (this includes you, if you happen to be one of these fabulous beings!) to be eligible for the giveaway. Be sure to include your age, location, relationship (ie sister, friend, daughter, Mom) and what you love about this person. Have fun and good luck! We’ll be announcing the winners in our April newsletter.

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.

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Last week we had our menstruation party at Grand Valley State University, and today we finished our project with an in class presentation on our experience. I wanted to say thank you for the Lunapads donations and support of our menstruation party! I also wanted to tell you a little about the event.

We had 15 guests, plus the two of us for a grand total of 17. It ended up being a really good number for discussion. We had originally planned for activities to take up most of the party, but we ended up having a dialogue that lasted almost an hour. Women were really excited to talk about their experiences in a positive atmosphere, and everyone really opened up about both positive and negative experiences. There was such a diverse range of experiences that ranged from happy to sad to touching.  It was really very moving, everyone was very open and supportive, and we could not have asked for a better outcome.

On top of the discussion, we had red-themed refreshments and decorations, created pages for a zine, and made menstruation-positive t-shirts.

In Vancouver, while there are many lovely stores to purchase mama, baby and earth friendly products, one of my favourites is Little Earth, located right beside my midwives clinic.  Run by Mariska and Flavia, Little Earth carries unique, high-quality childrens clothing and toys, as well as consignment clothing for mamas-to-be and children.

In honour of Mother’s Day and to thank the amazing Mamas who have supported them, Little Earth will be hosting a Free Mommy Make Over Day.  So, if you are a local Vancouver Mama, consider treating yourself to some pampering.  While you’re there, please consider doing some shopping that day for the little ones in your life, as Little Earth is generously donating 10% of all sales on this day to our very own Pads4Girls program! Deets below…

Join us for a day of well deserved pampering and treats!

There will be professional make up artists, hair stylists and Indian head Massage all for you!  10 % of all sales on this day will be donated to Pads4Girls.

You can pre- book to secure your spot, but walk-ins are always welcome.
Where: Little Earth
When: Sat May 9 noon-4 pm
Who : Beautiful Mama’s and Mama’s to be
How :  Pre-book 778-737-7004

littleearthvancouver@gmail.com