Lunapads Blog

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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The clock is ticking and the countdown is on for Lunapads’ owners Madeleine and Suzanne to wing their way over to Uganda as part of Shanti Uganda’s Yoga & Seva Journey. As part of their contribution, we are raising funds to enroll 300 teenage girls in Shanti Uganda’s At Risk Girls Program, a health and wellness program focused on inspiring futures for girls and teen mothers in Kasana Town Uganda. As part of the workshop, each girl will receive AFRIpads (Ugandan-made cloth pads based on Lunapads) and a health education manual.

Thanks to generous donations from our customers and friends we have raised enough so far to sponsor 124 girls to attend. We’re almost half way there but we need your help to get us to our goal!  For only $15 you can sponsor a girl to attend the workshop where she will receive life altering health education and washable menstrual products that will last her years and ensure that she can get the most out of her education. In case your not already aware of the immense impact that getting an education can have for a girl (not to mention her family and her entire country) in the developing world, check out this wicked video from The Girl Effect.

AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:

Now, thanks to our generous sponsors DivaCup International your donation of $15 or more will enter you in a contest to win 1 of 5 DivaCup menstrual cups!

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We are always so excited to hear from our Pads4Girls partners about how our pads are making a difference to girls all over the world. Here is a recent update from Emily Wilson, a volunteer with the Sexual Rights Centre in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Emily started bringing pads to Zimbabwe in 2008, when she filled her suitcases with disposable maxi pads. Since then, she has been one of Pads4Girls most active distribution partners, bringing over 150 Pads4Girls Kits to distribute to some of the most at risk women and girls in Zimbabwe. To help Emily bring more Pads4Girls kits to the women of Zimbabwe, donate here and specify ‘Sexual Right Centre’ as the distribution group.

Salibonani! It’s Emily again. It’s been a long while since I posted an update about how your generous support is helping women in Zimbabwe. It was almost three years ago – in late 2008 – that I launched the first ‘maxi appeal’ amongst family and friends in Ottawa. At the time, I was overwhelmed by people’s interest and response to the initiative in Canada, and by the situations of the women in Zimbabwe whom I was delivering the pads to. It was one of the most difficult times in recent history for Zimbabweans, who were struggling to access the most basic items that we in Canada take for granted. I remember walking into grocery stores – one after the other – only to find empty shelves; the only available item for purchase seemed to be locally made laundry soap. I remember being met at the airport in Bulawayo by a taxi driver who, when he opened the trunk of his car to put my bags inside, nervously looked around as he repositioned two loaves of bread so that they wouldn’t get squashed; later he explained that bread was so hard to come by that he was afraid of being attacked if people knew he had some in his car. I remember changing my US dollars into the local Zimbabwean currency, and having to carry around bagfuls of it to buy anything; prices changed by the hour due to the unfathomably high inflation rates and I racked up my first ever 38 trillion dollar bill for a few basic items!

Things have changed in Zimbabwe since 2008. The creation of an inclusive government, which comprises the three main political parties, has led to the relative stabilization of the economy and a less volatile political situation. On my most recent trip to Zimbabwe, I noticed that things have visibly changed on some levels: grocery stores are full, businesses are functioning and streets are bustling. People are getting on with their daily lives, as we do here. However, the majority of Zimbabweans continue to live on less than one US dollar per day. The unemployment rate remains high and, even for those who are formally employed, the average income is not enough to cover the cost of living. This means that, for many women and girls in Zimbabwe, sanitary wear remains a luxury that many cannot afford. The Lunapads project in Zimbabwe therefore continues to address a real need and provide a tangible solution.

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As regular readers will be aware, over the past decade Lunapads has been developing the Pads4Girls program to bring reusable feminine hygiene supply kits to thousands of girls and women in need in over 15 countries. Pads4Girls seeks to address an often-overlooked problem that hundreds of millions of girls and women in developing nations face: missing school or work for several days every month because they lack adequate menstrual hygiene supplies. You can learn more about the issue and its impact on our site here, and in the Pads4Girls section of our blog.

Trying to determine how to make a bigger impact with Pads4Girls from a distance only goes so far, and we feel called to learn more and go deeper. In January 2012 Suzanne and I will be traveling to Uganda with Shanti Uganda, a Vancouver-based charity that improves infant and maternal health, provides safe women-centered care and supports the well-being of birthing mothers and women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

We are appealing to the Lunapads community to raise funds to enroll 300 teenage girls in Shanti Uganda’s At Risk Girls Program, a health and wellness program focused on inspiring futures for girls and teen mothers in Kasana Town Uganda. As part of the workshop, each girl will receive AFRIpads (Ugandan-made cloth pads based on Lunapads, see below for more information about them) and a health education manual.

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Yesterday we had the extraordinary good fortune to be visited by some remarkable people working for change for Ethiopians, the leaders of Partners in the Horn of Africa, and Hope for Children.

Yewoinshet Masresha is an engaging and charismatic Ethiopian woman and the founder of Hope for Children, an organization which has received worldwide attention for its pioneering work in the care of women and children affected by HIV/AIDS.

A social activist from her early teens, Yewoinshet joined the Red Cross at age 17 during a period of political instability and war in Ethiopia. When she refused to marry a high ranking military official she was imprisoned in solitary confinement for three years. She emerged with a renewed strength and commitment to help women and children in need. The impact of  HIV/AIDS was having a profound effect on the country and many children were losing one or both parents to the virus. It was in response to this HIV/AIDS crisis that Yewoinshet founded Hope for Children, the first NGO in Ethiopia dedicated to the care of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Yewoinshet shared her personal story with us firsthand, as well as describing life for most women and girls in Ethiopia. In many communities, for example, girls are expected to wash male visitors’ feet, and are given undesirable bits of meat, while their brothers receive choicer pieces. Education for girls is widely seen as being pointless, since they will end up married often before they even reach puberty. Yewoinshet also described a deeply negative and shame-based culture around menstruation, and the devastating effect that it has on girls’ self-esteem and education (a sadly familiar story, which for our part we are seeking to address in various nations via our Pads4Girls program.)

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For every comment posted below telling us what the Girl Effect means to you, Lunapads will donate $5 to Pads4Girls! Fundraising ends Friday, October 7th at 5pm PST.

Hey everyone! In case you didn’t already know, there’s a mighty blogging campaign starting today to raise awareness for the Girl Effect campaign. In case you’re new to the notion that educating girls is a major world-saving activity, please check out this brilliant video as an intro.

The Girl Effect’s mandate has always resonated for us here at Lunapads. Pads4Girls (our in-house program that provides low-cost versions of Lunapads and Lunapanties to girls in developing nations so they don’t miss school while they’re having their periods) is our “angle” in supporting the amazing goal of educating the developing world’s 600 million girls.

But wait, there’s more!

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Hello! I am really excited to be joining the Lunapads team.

I was born and raised in a small town on Vancouver Island and spent my after school hours in the dance studio since before I even started kindergarten. When I was in high school, I got really interested in the costume design aspect of the performance world. So much so, that upon my graduation, I moved to Vancouver to study fashion design at Kwantlen.

Studying fashion, textile arts and history of costume opened me up to a plethora of feminist concerns and passions; women’s empowerment, body image, textile art vs. craft and women’s role in society post Women’s Lib, to name a few. I did my internship with local designer, Allison Wonderland becauseI love our growing local fashion scene and her stuff is so darn cute. Working at lululemon’s little sister, OQOQO, is where I got schooled in the eco-fashion/textile movement and again, found a new passion.

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As you may recall, back in May we were contacted by Helen McGuirk, a volunteer with the US Peace Corps working in the Nyanza Province of Kenya. Pads4Girls donated $344 to fund her project to teach young girls how to sew their own cloth pads.

The project has now begun! Here is an update from Helen on it’s progress:

Hello Lunapads readers! We’ve started our sanitary pads educational program this week here in the Nyanza Province of Kenya. I ended up picking a design similar to the Lunapads design, for convenience and ease of use for the girls. They are also very quick to make, about 1.5 hours for completion!

We started with a small group of ten girls from Omiro Mixed Secondary School. This school was priority number one due to the girl’s daily interactions with the opposite sex (some schools in our location are female only). The schools has 110 females enrolled, so we are planning on 4 moregroups of 25 girls before the term ends in August.
We discussed the high cost of disposable pads and then I explained about the donations made so that they could have the materials to make their own re-usable pads, they are very grateful. Here is an online album that I will update regularly with photos of the project: http://bit.ly/kncnQ4.

The girls were so excited to work on this project and began asking many questions relevant to the subject. More to come soon, as the project is quickly gaining momentum! -Helen

It’s great to be back at Lunapads after an entire school year has passed. Last summer I had the opportunity to work on the Lunapads Pads4Girls video. It was a great experience…not only to create the video, but to learn about Pads4Girls. If you haven’t heard yet, Pads4Girls is the name of Lunapads’ philanthropic project which sends reusable menstrual pads to girls in developing nations. The project has an enormous impact on the lives of girls living in developing nations. Having adequate menstrual supplies ensures that these girls don’t miss school when they get their periods. Without these supplies girls miss up to as much as 20% of their education because of their periods. Pads4Girls is currently being featured on Mothering.com this month.

Interning for Lunapads this year, one of my fun tasks is to keep the Lunapads Youtube Channel updated and lively! While browsing Youtube today, I came across this truly uplifting video about the Pardada Pardadi school for girls, located just outside of Delhi, India. Surprisingly, the story has a common theme with our Pads4Girls effort- Cloth Pads.

In rural India, where the Pardada Pardadi school is located, the idea of a financially independent woman is still not the social norm. Luckily, the Pardada Pardadi school is making efforts to change this. The school’s goal is to train girls to become leaders in their communities.

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