Lunapads Blog

 I’ll just cut straight to the chase for those of you with short attention spans: I am nuts about gardening, and the next 500 words or so are basically going to be not much more than variations on that message.

I was prompted to write this post when a friend and business colleague tweeted about how well some plants from my garden were doing on his downtown roof, and further how his jeweler wife had made a casting of a crocosmia (aka Montbretia, Jupiter variety in case you are geeky that way) bud, one of my great favorites, inspired by it. There are so many layers to that: sharing, life, growth, beauty, art: time for a post to celebrate it all.

I am a bit of a messy, creative, “just go for it” type of person, and my garden is no different: I don’t worry too much about what “should” go where, and kind of revel in minor gardening “transgressions” like mixing flowers and vegetables together in the same bed and being perfectly happy with the neighbour’s climbing plants making themselves at home on our side of the fence as well.

It kind of feels like a very large, slightly out of control laboratory/playground, where my family and hundreds of small creatures like to hang out.

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So I’m gonna admit right up front that while I do enjoy candy and dorky Valentine’s cards just as much as the next human, I am generally not a fan of Valentine’s day.

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As many of you are already aware, Lunapads offers cost-priced Pads4Girls Kits that can be purchased by customers, which are then given to girls and birthing women in Africa.  The way it works is that we are approached by individuals or NGOs who work with girls and women in need (Imagine1Day Ethiopia and Shanti Uganda are two Vancouver-based examples) who we then add to the list of potential recipients for customer donations. Customers buy the kits, and we give them to the groups who then distribute them to the recipients – all good.

That said, like so many other things in life, Pads4Girls isn’t perfect.  First, the obvious problem that we can’t reach everyone who needs supplies.  Second, there are not always the necessary supporting resources available (education, water and stable living situations come to mind) in every community that make using cloth pads easy.  Finally, while Pads4Girls kits help thousands of girls and women, they are still being shipped half way around the world.  We are thrilled to tell you about a new initiative that takes this work several steps further, as well as how a little holiday gift-giving can help to support it.

Elizabeth Scharpf is as striking in person as her accomplishments and vision are on paper.  Tall, grounded, deeply compassionate and extremely smart were both my first and lasting impressions of her.  Elizabeth is the founder of Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), a unique social profit that seeks to empower women and girls both physically and financially.

While working on economic policy (think World Bank and Clinton Foundation level) Elizabeth came to understand the impact that girls missing school and women missing work due to unmanaged menses was having.  She then asked herself what was going to make a bigger difference: the report that she was writing “that nobody was going to read anyway” (her words), or finding a way to help girls stay in school and women get back to work? Thus SHE was born.

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We’ve known for a long time that Lunapads has the best customers ever. Now, thanks to all the nominations from our lovely fans, Lunapads International has been short-listed for the Green America People’s Choice Award for Green Business of the Year!

Past winners of the annual award include Reusablebags.com and Ten Thousand Villages. We’d love to be included in their ranks but we need your help! It is a “people’s choice” award after all so it’s your vote that counts. Click the button on the left to vote Lunapads International for Green Business of the Year .

Voting ends October 6th.
Thanks for your support!

It’s no secret that we live in a society where the majority prefer it if women keep their menstrual cycles, well…..a secret. We say to heck with that! We think women should be open about their periods and free to discuss and share it in whatever way they see fit. That’s why we’re having a photo contest on facebook! We’re asking Lunapads users to take a photo of their pad stash and upload it to the “I Heart My Lunapads” Facebook group. If your photo receives the most “Likes” from the group members you’ll win one of three Travel Kits! All you have to do is take a photo of your Lunapads stash or you and your favourite Lunapad and upload it to the group photo album. The group members will then vote for the winning image by hitting the “Like” button below their fave photo. If your photo wins the contest here’s what you get:

• An awesome pStyle “stand to pee” device in the colour of your choice
• A Peri Bottle to rinse your pStyle with
• A pack of 12 Wysi Wipes
• All packed in a Lunapads Travel Pouch!

You have until August 28th to enter the contest and winners will be announced September 1st.

So far we have received some very creative entries and we can’t wait to see what is yet to come. For more information on the contest rules etc. and to see the photos that have been entered so far, visit the “I Heart My Lunapads” Facebook Group. Come Show us your stash!

Hello Everyone – Emily Wilson here!

Some updates for all of you who are interested in the Lunapads distribution in Zimbabwe.

First of all, thanks to so many of you generous people, I was able to deliver 42 Pads4Girls Kits at the beginning of May, which is equivalent to $1260! This was quite an overwhelming number of contributions, and I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all who contributed. And, thanks to Lunapads, the donation drive is going to continue as long as I am traveling to and from Zimbabwe, so if you would like to contribute more, or pass on the donation information to others who may be interested, please do so. I will be making another trip to Zimbabwe in September, so I hope to have some more pads to take with me then ;)

Second, we have a new delivery partner! Apart from the Sexual Rights Centre—which is overseeing delivery of pads in and around Bulawayo to The Haven (who received the first batch of donations in January), Contact Family Counselling and Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital—the Rural Libraries & Resources Development Program is now delivering pads to women in rural areas of Matabeleland.

The Rural Libraries & Resources Development Program (RLRDP) is a community-based, non-governmental organization that was established in 1990, with the aim of establishing and developing community libraries and information services to empower the rural population. They provide remote, rural communities with free, relevant and appropriate information and cater to a diverse group of users that includes preschool children, school children, youth, women and men. They have assisted 300 rural school community libraries and use donkey drawn mobile carts and book delivery bicycles to do outreach to areas where there are not proper roads.

RLRDP heard about the maxi pad donations through the Sexual Rights Centre, and asked to be involved in the project, to ensure that women and girls in rural areas also have access to sanitary wear. In May 2009, they made their first delivery of pads and tampons (by donkey cart!) to an HIV/AIDS club in Bubi District, about 70 km from Bulawayo. One of their staff members, who is helping with the delivery, sent the photo below.

* women in Bubi District, Zimbabwe, receive sanitary wear donations through the Rural Libraries & Resource Development Program

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In Lunapads mythology, Once Upon A Time there was a fair young maiden (yours truly!) who aspired to make the loveliest washable menstrual pads in the land.  She toiled endlessly at her sewing machines day after day, week after week, and (natch) month after month, until she created something she was satisfied with.  She asked her mirror, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which are the fairest pads of all?”, to which the mirror replied “All pads that are made with love and respect for women’s bodies are truly fair and lovely.”  Love that mirror!  I passed along the task of sewing Lunapads to our noble production partners many years ago, but I continued to sew all manner of clothes and household linens right up until my daughter was born just over 4 years ago.

Since that time, I must confess that gardening has captured my creative heart (easier to do with a 4 year old, as well!), and so I was a bit nervous to pull out my rulers, scissors and 20 year old domestic single-needle machine to make this video – did I still have the magic?  That verdict will have to be in the eyes of the beholder of the video, but for my part it was really fun in a “blast from the past” kind of way.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The videos and pattern download were created in response to two needs: first, as a possible option for those who can’t afford Lunapads, or to support those who prefer to make things themselves, just because. Second is to offer it as an instructional tool for women in Africa to make pads for themselves and/or as commercial products, as well as for crafters in this neck of the woods who want to make pads to contribute as donations to Pads4Girls (more on that in the next post – stay tuned!)

A note on the video: it is not about how to make Lunapads, which requires a far more complex sewing process (not to mention 3 different fabrics and 2 different sewing machines – eek!)  Rather, it is an easy, adjustable pattern that can be made with a single-needle domestic machine and a wide variety of fabrics.  You can download the pattern here.  I encourage you to experiment with different fabrics and closures, and have fun!

Good news continues to come our way about initiatives bringing cloth pads to women and girls in Africa.  As discussed in this earlier post, millions of girls and women in Africa do not have access to adequate menstrual supplies.  Sadly, girls stay home and miss important school days because they have no means to deal with their period while at school.  While Proctor and Gamble have their “protecting futures” campaign (donating disposable pads to girls, thus creating a long-term waste problem), partners in our Pads4Girls initiative provide girls in rural areas of Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya with a sustainable alternative: Lunapads!

While we recognize supplying cloth pads to girls and women is an important step, there are many others in Africa helping to take this initiative one step further.  Several colleagues of ours are building programs to train women to make the pads in their own community, thus creating employment and income for women.  Here are a few examples:

Sapna Dayal of Imagine1Day will be bringing Lunapads with her to Ethiopia in May with hopes to build skills and employment for local women to make and sell cloth pads.  When Carrie Jane Williams travelled to Uganda last fall to bring Lunapads to Uganda, she helped orchestrate the production of ”AfriPads” right there on the spot.  While she was there, she met a young couple who became so excited by what they saw, that they are now completely devoted to getting AfriPads off the ground.   Pauls Grinvalds and Sonia Klumpp have plans to launch a six-month pilot project to determine the feasiblity of manufacturing and distributing cloth pads to the girls in Kitengeesa, in the Masaka District.  Paul and Sonia’s plans were featured in one of Uganda’s national newspapers: the Daily Mirror.  Hopefully this press will stimulate greater awareness of the problem and some funding for their project.  Please pass on the word on their behalf.

Recently we learned of an even larger cloth pad manufacturing program that was inspired by Lunapads.  Last week, I attended the annual Ethiopian dinner of Partners in the Horn of Africa. This Canadian charity works in Ethiopia and directs 100% of the donations directly to projects that involve building schools, bridges, wells, and providing group homes and centres for HIV orphans.

A niece of one of the board members showed her aunt a Lunapad, and from there, the idea of replicating our cloth pads in Ethiopia took off.  In 2008, a Partners-funded pilot project manufactured and distributed 20,000 modified Lunapads and 2,500 Lunapanties for girls in a rural school district near Addis Ababa.  For every $5,000 they invested in this project, over 7,000 more school days for girls were added.  We had no idea this was happening and are so happy to hear about the trickle effect Lunapads has already made in Ethiopia.

Partners also provides microfinancing for women entrepreneurs, and a result of this pilot project they will be expanding the program to set up a manufacturing facility to make 200,000 pads and employ local women.   It was inspiring to hear John Baigent, the Executive Director of Partners, talk about the cloth pad program so passionately to a group of 200 supporters at the dinner.  I was amused to hear that John has achieved “rock star status” among the women and girls because of the profound impact the cloth pads have brought to their community.  Hmm, I’m imagining John channelling Annie Lennox and leading the girls and women in a chorus of ”Sisters are doing it for themselves!”

The Partners cloth pad pilot project was made possible by the generous donation from a group of mothers in West Vancouver called Mom and Me.  Each Mother’s Day this group holds a family dance and in 2008 they raised almost $25,000 for the Partners cloth pad initiative.  I hope to attend the event this year with my family and would love to see this fundraising model replicated everywhere.  Because Partners covers all the administrative costs, 100% of the donations go directly towards the projects they fund.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if more groups replicated this idea and supported this initiative?

Meet Emily Wilson. She works in Zimbabwe with women’s organizations and through this work she has discovered a real need to help women and girls gain access to menstrual supplies. In Emily’s words:

“At one meeting, a member of the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe stated that there is a real need to engender humanitarian responses in the country; the example she gave is the fact that many women can no longer afford to buy sanitary wear, or else it is just not available in stores. This message was repeated over and over during my visits to different organizations and communities, and so knowing that I was to return to Zimbabwe again in early January, I decided to try and do something about this issue. I mobilized friends, family members and complete strangers in Ottawa to collect 35 boxes of tampons, 65 packages of maxi pads, and 5 packages of reusable pads. The collection drive was fascinating, as it started up numerous debates and discussions about the most appropriate sanitary wear for women in Zimbabwe (tampons versus pads), issues of health and sustainability (disposable versus reusable), etc. In the end, of course, I took what had been donated, and felt very grateful for all of the support received.

I took a giant suitcase of these items with me to Zimbabwe in January, and personally delivered them to a women’s shelter in the city of Bulawayo. I met with some of the young women there as well as members of the Board and people from the local Church who volunteer to help run the shelter. They were all extremely grateful and were very touched by the gesture. After discussing with them what the most appropriate items are for young women in Zimbabwe, it became clear that reusable pads are the best – in terms of being culturally appropriate, practical, and sustainable.”

This is where Lunapads comes in. Emily contacted us to help her collect enough pads to fill another suitcase (or two, or three!) with reusable cloth pads. She wants to give the women a lasting alternative and something beautiful and functional. So please, read about the groups Emily is working with in Zimbabwe and don’t hesitate to help a woman there today!

Choose: Sexual Rights Centre (Zimbabwe) from the donation options. You can donate a Pads4Girls Kit which gives a full set of pads needed for one woman/girl or you can donate any amount of money, which will go towards the purchase of more kits.

The Sexual Rights Centre is the ‘umbrella’ organization that will oversee delivery of the pads to The Haven, Contact Family Counselling and Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital. For the safety of the women they help we cannot provide much information about these organizations, but below are a few details.

The Haven is a shelter for abused women and their children, located in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The shelter was established by concerned citizens and professionals from the legal, medical, psychological and education sectors. This committee of professionals started providing shelter for abused women and their children in 1999; a home was purchased as a permanent shelter in 2006. The Haven Trust and its networks provide education on women’s rights, HIV & AIDS, sexual & reproductive health, and livelihood skills. Members from the Bulawayo community provide food and in-kind support for the shelter, which is how it currently continues to operate.

Contact Family Counselling, also based in Bulawayo, offers free counselling services for families and children in difficult circumstances. The organization focuses on disadvantaged people to empower them to lead healthier and more productive lives. Contact also trains a broad range of health, social service and community workers in systemic counselling techniques. Contact initiated a Child Sexual Abuse Program in 2007, offering services to children and their families affected by sexual abuse. For more information: www.contactfc.org

Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital is one of the largest psychiatric facilities in Southern Africa. The hospital provides residential care and outreach support for people living with mental health problems. The hospital currently houses over 300 female patients. The hospital has experienced serious challenges in delivering effective medical resources and information for female patients. The Sexual Rights Centre currently works with the female patients at Ingutsheni and are appealing for sanitary products for the women. Access to sanitary products is a huge problem for Zimbabwean women and particularly women living in institutions.

Our global reach has expanded yet again. We were approached by the director of Project Thrive, Celeste Mergens. Project Thrive provides self-sustaining programs that help orphanages develop long-term support and leverage their resources, making every day easier for children and their supporters. Celeste came to us for help in getting reusable menstrual supplies to the girls at one of the largest orphanages in Kenya, The Academy of Hidden Talents. This time we had very little to offer and with only 3 ½ weeks to get everything ready we couldn’t gather resources for enough Goods 4 Girls Kits to even begin to reach their goal of 520 kits. But Celeste took matters in to her own hands and made the impossible possible. In just 3 ½ weeks she was able to gather volunteer sewers and make 520 reusable feminine hygiene kits! She then took the idea of our Teen Booklet and created one specifically for the girls she works with in Kenya, making them feel empowered and educated in regards to their menstrual cycles. Here is the update on her visit to Nairobi and the program she created to honor this momentous occasion: Days for Girls.

Dear Luna Gals,I’m back! Days for Girls – was a Transformative Experience. It is almost unimaginable to learn that girls in the Academy of Hidden Talents in the slums of Kenya could be waiting in their room for days during menstruation. But thanks to YOU and many other amazing women all over the nation who stepped up to help make a difference, we were all able to make 520 feminine hygiene kits a reality with just 3 ½ weeks notice! And the impact was far greater than any of us ever dreamed… (more…)