Lunapads in Ecuador!
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
