Lunapads Blog

In January we were contacted by Page Pennell, Director of Haitian Support, an organization that runs a school in Bodarie, Haiti that currently has over 500 students enrolled in grades K-7. 100 of these students are girls of menstruating age who are unable to attend classes during their periods due to lack of supplies.

Thanks to donations from Lunapads customers, Pads4Girls was able to supply Haitian Support with a box of pads to take to the girls at Bodarie School.

Here’s what Page had to say about the distribution:
(more…)

One of the most exciting new directions for Pads4Girls these days is that we are creating relationships to facilitate learning about how to make pads, in addition to sending them over from Canada. There is much more news to come on this front, but in the meantime here is a wonderful example that is particularly poignant because of the involvement of a group of girls in Vancouver rallying to support girls in Kenya, via the US Peace Corps.

A dear and longtime girlfriend of mine has been working as a Girl Guides and Pathfinder Leader for the past decade. She brought her troup of ten 12-14 year old girls, the #4 Vancouver Pathfinder Unit, to visit Lunapads recently. The girls were particularly taken with Pads4Girls (I had shown them our video about it when I attended one of their meetings last year), and they surprised me with a wonderful donation of $140 that they had earned via babysitting.

Fate had it that a few days later we received a request from Helen McGuirk, a US Peace Corps volunteer, requesting help with finding donations to help her teach a group of girls in Kenya how to make their own pads. They needed $344 to complete the funding, and so we took the $140 the Pathfinders had raised and made up the difference ourselves. Please read Helen’s email below about the project to see what can happen when girls and women come together for a common cause.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

Happy Holidays from all of us at Lunapads! As part of the festive winter season, we would like to focus on Pads4Girls, about which we happen to have two very special announcements.

We are so proud of our beautiful new video.  In partnership with our generous customers, individuals and NGOs, Pads4Girls continues to make a difference by helping girls in developing nations stay in school. Please share it with your friends!

(more…)

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.

(more…)

We have some exciting Pads4Girls developments in the works backstage here at Lunapads, and receiving this email further stoked our fire to optimize its impact.

For those of you just tuning in, Pads4Girls is a program co-sponsored by ourselves and our customers to provide Lunapads to girls in developing nations who would otherwise miss several days of school each month due to lack of menstrual supplies. The quick math: educating girls not only changes their lives for the better – in fact, it’s one of the most potent forces for global social change out there.

In a recent incident of radical sefllessness and outrageous generosity, a customer invited her birthday celebrant friends to donate to Pads4Girls instead of buying her a gift: check it out (warning: organic hankies might be useful here!) On behalf of Lunapads and the girls* who will be receiving their supplies: Thank you Lorraine for your wonderful generosity (it’s no surprise that you have such great friends)!

(more…)

My daughter turned 1 year old on a sunny Saturday this August and we threw her a backyard party. Our closest friends came with a great group of children. We danced, laughed, ate delicious food — all while making a difference in the lives of a few girls.

We purchased 10 Pads4Girls Kits through Lunapads. Rather than give traditional loot bags at her birthday party, we donated these meaningful kits. All the children and their families were told that they donated pads for girls in less privileged communities in the world. These girls would likely miss school without such necessities. Imagine giving a washable, reusable pad to a girl that has never had such a “luxury!”

Our family hopes to set a trend for parents and children alike. Rather than spend $100 on simple things that often get trashed, why not make a young woman smile across the globe.

We chose Pads4Girls because one day our little one will grow to be a young woman herself. The pads she will be introduced to by her mama will be washable. We will tell her as she grows that she helped other young girls achieve their goals and feel good about themselves.

Sarah Farhangi
www.doulamamas.com

We are very excited to introduce our latest addition to the Pads4Girls recipient list; Project 61! Project 61 oversees multiple programs in community development in Ethiopia, including working to provide boarding school, clothing, family support and character development to the large orphan population of Korah.

Korah is a community of approximately 100,000 located near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The community was established approximately 75 years ago to serve as a leper colony and provide residence for individuals with communicable diseases. As leprosy has been eliminated, it has developed a social stigma of poverty and illness. The community of Korah faces many challenges; however  poverty, lack of education and income generation are three key areas of concern.

Due to AIDS and poor living conditions, the community of Korah carries a high orphan population. A large majority of Korah’s children and orphans reside in the Addis Ababa city landfill which provides basic shelter and opportunity to gather food from the trash.

Through a newly-established sponsorship program through Project 61, approximately 250 Korah children will be enrolled in a private boarding school beginning September of 2010. Each student has been screened and required to attend a summer tutoring program to develop basic English, life skills and educational training. The students will be removed from the city landfill and provided daily meals, lodging, quality education and supervision.
Clothing and basic needs will be meet through the P61′s sponsorship program; however  hygiene products are a constant need. The support and provision of Pads4Girls will be a wonderful addition to the lives of the female students residing in the boarding school.

To donate Lunapads to the orphans of Korah, simply chose “Project 61: Pads 4 Korah” from the list of organizations on our Donate page.

Korah School Girls

Of all the various partner groups and individuals that Pads4Girls works with, there are two in particular that stand out with respect to their long term vision, success and unique personalities – we are thrilled to report that they are now working together, and that there is a new way for you to support them directly.

The Lugari Community Resource Center is the brainchild of charismatic leader Jenipher Wasike (see our video of her talking about her own experience growing up in Kenya without information about or access to menstrual products on our YouTube.com channel), a project of the Willing Hearts International Society – Canada (WHISCA).

Afri-Pads was started by two Americans: Pauls Grinvalds and Sophia Klumpp, and a longtime Pads4Girls collaborator, Canadian Carrie-Jane Williams. Right from the get-go they have sought to go beyond simply distributing Pad Kits to girls in need, emphasizing instead building padmaking businesses (image above is of the tailoring class learning about sewing machine maintenance.) They have had remarkable success, and are now renovating their second padmaking factory.

WHISCA is now seeking to offer its tailor training program at Lugari and is seeking donations to finance the training- click here to donate and be part of this remarkable story!

PS/ I have spent a measurable portion of my life behind a sewing machine, but what was once a professional pursuit ultimately lapsed into a hobby, particularly after my daughter was born 5 years ago. I have just committed to donating my last two industrial sewing machines to the Lugari Resource Center, which will be shipped off later this month as part of a container load of donated goods funded by a Vancouver chapter of Rotary International. I love the idea that the same machines that made Lunapads in the early days will now be part of new padmaking ventures in Kenya!