Lunapads Blog

We are thrilled to announce another campaign to help menstruating girls in Africa get back in the classroom. Carrie-Jane Williams (pictured with her students at the African Women’s English Support Group that she volunteers at each week through Frontier College) is a University of British Columbia masters student who is traveling to Uganda to do a volunteer teaching placement. While she’s there, in addition to doing her master’s research on digital literacies in rural libraries, she’ll be supplying girls with our very own “U-Go-Girl Kits” (with the “U” of course being for Uganda.)

Last month, I met with Carrie-Jane, Dr. Shelley Jones and Mr. Dan Ahimbisibwe (a Ugandan community leader, businessman, father, librarian and student at Uganda Martyr’s University) to explore ways we could work together to help girls and women in Uganda, both in the short term and long term. Dr. Jones is one of Carrie-Jane’s mentors. Her doctoral thesis (titled “Secondary schooling for girls in rural Uganda: challenges, opportunitiesand emerging identities“) was focused on educational policy in Uganda and the emerging government policies making education more accessible to Ugandan youth (girls especially). While in Uganda, Dr. Jones talked to the girls about their hopes and dreams and saw the daily challenges they faced, including the lack means to deal with their menstrual cycles. Women and girls use cloth rags, leaves and newspapers for absorbance in lieu of unaffordable disposable pads and tampons. In some cases, girls may not even own underwear with which to keep these products in place. Girls risk feeling humiliated when they are inadequately protected as they end up with leakage, blood-stained legs and clothing. The girls will hesitate to go to the front of the class to write on the board or stand up to answer teachers’ questions, which is common practice. As a result, the girls stay home during their period, and some stop going to school altogether.

Menarche (the onset of a girls first period) should be cause for celebration, but for many girls throughout the developing world, menarche signals not only the end of girlhood but also of education. Carrie-Jane wants to change this. Moved by what she has learned from Dr. Jones and Mr. Ahimbisibwe, Carrie-Jane will be holding a fundraiser in Vancouver this summer to collect donations to buy pads for the girls and distribute them. To date, she has already collected funds for over 20 U-Go-Girl Kits and we just received another 10 orders on our website! In addition to providing cloth pads, Lunapads will be donating Lunapanties to support Carrie-Jane’s efforts.

To read more about Carrie-Jane’s trip and plans, see her blog here. If you want to support Carrie-Jane and supply her with pads for her trip (she’s leaving September 1, 2008, so hurry!) you can purchase the U-Go-Girl Kits here. Thank you (or “webale” in the Luganda language) for your generous support and thank you Carrie-Jane for your amazing work.

Regular blog readers will remember Loretta Cella, founder of the Passion Foundation, and the fabulous fundraiser she held earlier this year to purchase Goods 4 Girls Kits. She raised over $1,000 that night, and took 35 kits with her to Kenya. The moving account of her trip is below. The picture of the girls who received the fruits of her labor tells a powerful story of what a difference one individual can make. Thanks Loretta, you are a truly amazing individual, and we are proud to support you! (please continue reading Loretta’s amazing story below…)

Imagine living in a slum that housed over 800,000 people, where there was no drinkable running water, piles of garbage everywhere, and where secondhand clothes from other parts of the world were sold to make a living. Now imagine the poverty, lack of education, and lack of opportunity the residences of this slum would have to face. This is reality in Kiberia; a place located in Nairobi, Kenya. Kiberia is said to be the largest slum in all of Africa – and possibly the world.

Within Kiberia’s slum live a large number of young women who have hopes and dreams for the future. They talk about being teachers – with dreams of educating the poor for free, and hopes of being a doctor to help people in need; they crave freedom from all the pain and suffering that they are currently enduring and yet their smile (when found) could change one’s life. These girls, Kenya’s future, have little chances of fulfilling their visions unless they go to school and work much harder than any one of us. Their living conditions, lack of family finances and costly school fees are distressing and the pressures for prostitution, drugs, and pregnancy are high. Most families have a hard time affording their rent, let alone their daughter’s feminine products that are essential for her education. (click below for more…)

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Crunchy Chicken (Deanna Duke)’s legion of fans have come together to organize a tribute to her in the form of Lordisa-only-knows how many blog posts, plus a drive for Goods 4 Girls Kits in her honor. In case you’re not already acquainted with la Crunch, check out the blog and her Goods 4 Girls site, which is devoted to supplying schoolgirls in Africa with sustainable menstrual supplies, and by extension keep them in school while they’re menstruating. In short, she rocks, and if you’re not already a fan, then you’re in for some ass-kicking inspiration.

We’ve been asked to write a specific post about what Deanna’s posts have meant to us, so here goes: I must confess to being a relatively recent addition to her Crunchiness’ fan club, which began when she recruited Lunapads to the Goods 4 Girls cause (it wasn’t hard!) In those few months, however, I have been completely won over by her hilarious, well-researched, articulate and deeply personal calls to arms with respect to taking real, meaningful steps towards more sustainable lifestyles. In a world where we are short on heroes, this woman shines like few others with her feisty way of calling the BS and leading by example when it comes to everything from greenwash consumerism to growing vegetables.

Thanks to her influence, Affluenza is my bedtime reading of choice, the Lunagals passed on a “shopping extravaganza”-themed event for women entrepreneurs, and our customers have donated hundreds of Goods 4 Girls kits. I am recommitted to working out my personal eco-bugs, and my garden is resplendent with everything from leeks to strawberries.

When it comes to the gardening, Crunchy’s example has been particularly timely for me, as I am enjoying my first-ever very own backyard and am even considering doing some home canning, a completely new adventure for me. Working in the garden has also proved to be a wonderful activity for Gigi and I to share (see gratuitous cute daughter photo at right – couldn’t resist!)

Needless to say, Deanna is also a major advocate of natural menstrual products (particularly the DivaCup, and she has personally converted hundreds of women with her DivaCup challenges.) Thanks to her example I am going one step further and replacing some of my toilet paper usage with my daughter’s homemade cloth wipes, something I’m not sure that I would otherwise have done. Last but not least, I have recently resurrected my old sewing machine and am excited to return to making some of the household linens and clothing.

So thanks, Deanna, for everything. You’re a fantastic role model and inspiration. We wish you, your fans and family all the best, and are proud to be your allies in taking better care of our beautiful planet. Oh, and while I’m here, Goods 4 Girls kits are an additional 10% off the already cost-price for the month of June, so if you haven’t already donated, please consider making a difference in this unique way.

If you haven’t read about the issue (or seen the recent Always commercials) there is an immense problem with girls in developing countries who miss school due to being unable to cope with their menses in a clean and comfortable manner, often resorting to using twigs, tree bark, grass and rags. Always’ answer to this is the Protecting Futures campaign. As discussed in the previous entry, disposables are not a real or sustainable solution to this problem.

Goods 4 Girls is the brainchild of Deanna Duke (known online as eco-blogger Crunchy Chicken), who has taken matters into her own hands by connecting washable pad manufacturers, like us, and their customers, with groups working directly with girls in African nations. Read her original blog post about the disposables donations issue here.

The issue of school girls in Africa has been on our radar for some time. Over the past 5 years, we have been contacted by many amazing women about girls in all parts of the world who need our help. Because we’ve never been able to come up with a practical and reliable solution to connect our efforts with our customers, we have simply been donating pads as requested. To date, we have sent pads to Zimbabwe (on numerous occasions), Kenya, Swaziland, Uganda, Mali, Ecuador and Mexico. We also have a good friend working in several local communities in Africa teaching them how to sew their own Lunapads. So, we know first hand how real this problem is.

Thanks to Deanna, we are supporting Goods 4 Girls in two ways: by sending an initial shipment of Lunapads, nylon purses and Lunapanties to girls Africa and by creating our new Goods 4 Girls Lunapads Kit and Goods 4 Girls Lunapanties Kit so that customers can purchase them for donation.

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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!”

There has been a lot of discussion lately on the web about girls in Africa in the wake of Tampax and Always TV ads on the topic. While we have yet to complete our assessment of the relative good actually being done by disposable products being made available to girls in need, for our part we regularly donate Lunapads to organizations working with women and girls globally: the latest recipients happen to be in Swaziland.

In January of this year Cindy Myint, a customer in Atlanta GA, wrote to us: “I am writing on behalf of a charitable group that my mother runs for the benefit of a small village called Nkamazi in Swaziland, Africa. To give you the quick background, my mother is the Executive Director of a small AIDS non-profit in Moncton, NB. She was approached a few years ago to partner with an African group and ultimately to improve the lives of some 80 children orphaned by parents who have perished from AIDS and its complications.

This is a grassroots movement with little funding. However, they’ve made a big impact in the little time they’ve been working there. Most notably, they have 39 children enrolled in school with their fees being paid largely by individuals and groups in the Moncton and Saint John areas. They have also established a sustainable garden with land donated by the village chief and created a sewing group. They’ve raised funds for several sewing machines and received many donation from Canadians of fabric and notions which are hand carried to Swaziland by dedicated volunteers.

Over the holidays, my mother was telling me that the girls in Africa miss on average one week of school because of their menstrual cycle. They actually stay home from class and use rags for roughly a week. In an 8 month school year, this equates to 2 missed months of school for the girls. My mother had never heard of any natural/reusable alternatives until I told her about your products. I was turned on to Lunapads by an acquaintance of mine here in Atlanta who swears by them. When my cycle returned after my first pregnancy, I was pretty bummed about having to stock up on pads and tampons after being nearly 2 years free of the annoyance. That’s when my friend told me about your products and I had my husband hunt them down the last time he was in Vancouver.”

Lunapads responded immediately with a donation of 4 dozen pad and liner sets. The photo above is Cindy’s mom, Debby showing the girls how to use their new Lunapads.

Cindy writes: “I am happy to report that the Lunapads were extremely well received by the girls in Swaziland. Attached is a picture of two girls getting their pads, along with some instruction of how to use and care for them. Once word got out to the girls that they could get these pads, they started coming to where Debby and Julie were staying to get them.”

I was just reading some feedback on our Facebook group from customers who would like to be able to donate to charities that we work with at Lunapads. A great idea that we are working on, although it’s not as easy as you might think from a technical perspective! In the meantime, we often donate pads to La Leche League chapters, groups working with low-income or developing nations women, and youth – we just don’t talk about it as much as we could. One of our collective “to do’s” for 2008 is to devote more time to sharing these stories, which brings me to a real, live example.
The University of British Columbia (the Canadian province where Lunapads is located) has an organization called Global Outreach Students Association. One if its many projects is women students educating rural women in Ecuador about women’s reproductive health and family planning. GOSA approached us a couple of years ago about donating Lunapads as part of their program. We got this letter and photos just the other day that tell the story:
“We received a generous donation of Lunapads from you earlier in the summer to take with us to a rural Indigenous community in Ecuador. Please find attached pictures of us explaining to the women how to use them. This is the second year that Lunapads has donated to GOSA, and again the response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. We distributed the pads to the women after a sexual health workshop where we explained the female reproductive cycle, different contraceptive methods, and had a great positive discussion including men about respectful cooperation between both women and men in a family. At the end, we introduced the Lunapads to any menstruating women who had attended the workshop. Previously the women were using awkward homemade methods to manage their period. They were excited to receive the pads and were extremely happy with them. The response was such that, even after we had given all the Lunapads, we continued to have women ask us about the product and if we had any more!! Both our organization and the communities we were working with would love to collaborate with Lunapads in the future.
Even if methods we’re more familiar with, such as (disposable) pads and tampons, were available and affordable to these communities, there is no waste management available and would only be adding to the inorganic garbage that they do not have any environmentally safe ways to manage. Lunapads was the perfect option and we were very happy to distribute them knowing that they are a comfortable, reusable, and sustainable product.
Again, thank you, and we look forward to be in contact in the future. It is because of the generosity of companies such as Lunapads that student organizations are able to go overseas and work on these kinds of projects.”
Sincerely, Natalie Amram