Lunapads

That was my reaction after viewing this horror show of clips of media commentators making less than respectful observations about female political figures, notably Nancy Pelosi, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. The Women’s Media Center has created this and many other works that will serve as a good re-energizer for those of us wearied by the under-representation and gratuitous bashing of women in positions of power, and a wakeup call for those who have yet to accept the necessity of feminism.

While I’m on the topic of women and politics, a plug for Equal Voice, a Canadian multi-partisan organization working to increase women’s participation in public life, seems apt. In my time as a citizen, feminist and media observer, I have come to the conclusion that we as women need to support our sisters on the public stage, regardless of political stripe (i.e. you don’t have to vote for or even agree with all their ideas, but please at least respect the crucial value of their participation, and for having the courage to step up to the plate.) Thanks ladies.

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 travelling 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, opportunities  and 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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This Sunday is Car-Free Day in Vancouver! What started off as a small closure of Commercial Drive in 2005 has now expanded to become a city-wide event. The shopping/walking communities of Downtown, Kitsilano, Main Street and Commercial Drive will each shut down multiple blocks of traffic and open up the streets to alternative forms of transportation - it’s amazing how communities become alive without cars grumbling through them all day. You see people out with dogs and children and strollers and rollerblades and flip-flops and stilts and unicycles and…my favourite - bicylces! So in honour of this awesome day where we see how the power of the people can create a vibrant city, I have found for all the gals out there a special, women-centric bicycle…the Vulva Taxi

Created by Finnish artist Mimosa Pale to protest a world that is ‘too man-parts-centric.’ Thrice weekly she invites residents of Helsinki to ride along in her taxi and help make her part of the world a little more female-friendly. Girls, let’s take back the streets!

Happy Car-Free Day!

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.

Lunapads wouldn’t be here, as it is today, if it wasn’t for the amazing support and inspiration we receive from 2 very special people. Pictured here is me and Carol Newell and Joel Solomon of Renewal Partners at the PEAK awards honouring Women in Finance. Carol was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her pioneering charitable work and social investing. Over the past fifteen years, she has placed over $60 million in organizations, individuals, and businesses working toward sustainable economic development and social and environmental justice throughout Canada. One such organization is the seed capital company Renewal Partners, of which Lunapads is an investment.

Her acceptance speech was addressed to an audience of primarily women with highly successful financial careers devoted to helping their clients manage, account for, or grow their wealth. And she delivered a passionate, important and inspiring message to them: think about what you do with wealth and consider putting it towards social profit enterprises.

She asks “can we find a way to do our work in community on this planet in a way that honours and respects our mothers and our sisters, and our daughters, as well as the planet that provides for us?” She challenged us to go from “simply making more, to making better” and using money as “a fuel - a catalyst - to help restore the health of the planet, and re-connection among ourselves.”

As I looked around the room and chatted with colleagues whom I hadn’t seen for many years (my former life was a full-time finance professional helping a big company keep track of and create wealth) it felt incredibly satisfying to know the direction I have taken my career at Lunapads has not only served me well, but serves others. When I met Madeleine 8 years ago, I intuitively knew I was ready for a change - and her powerful vision for Lunapads was the spark for me to move on. Today, I feel fortunate to be able to use my financial skills to do meaningful work and to be part of the greater vision that Carol holds: to stimulate a soically just and environmentally sustainable economy and way of life.

This is an awesome 20-minute video all about - you guessed it - STUFF! The creator and narrator, Annie Leonard, has done her research and breaks down the linear structure of how we make our Stuff to how we buy our Stuff to what we do with our Stuff once we’re done with it. It’s a system that does us and our world no justice but by understanding how it is wrong we can work together to fix it. Watch the movie - you won’t be disappointed.

Wow! That’s the single-best word I can come up with to describe the Passion with a Purpose fundraiser last week. For the record, we had no idea what to expect, and had never met Loretta Cella, the organizer, before. But hey, if someone is a friend of a beloved friend, then chances are good that you’ll connect. And connect we did! What a great evening, from start to finish. Loretta is connected with a fantastic group of women here in Vancouver who socialize regularly. The spa was gorgeous, and there were lovely snacks, including handmade chocolate-dipped strawberries, wine and the best hummous I’ve had in ages. We started off the evening with introductions - Loretta talking about her upcoming trip to Kenya, and Madeleine introduced Lunapads. From there, most gals went off for various treatments while those remaining got to know one another. That’s Suzanne on the left, looking totally blissed out after a massage, with me on the right, in front of the Lunapads display.

Best of all, over $1,000 was raised to purchase “Goods 4 Girls” Kits (that’s 35 kits!). Like I said, WOW!

Sorry to be so Vancouver-centric in my posts these days, but there is just a ton of good stuff happening!

On Thursday April 24th the Women’s Health Research Network presents health activist Judy Norsigian speaking about about the global reach of the now classic book on women’s health Our Bodies, Ourselves. The Director of the Institute of Gender and Health (Canadian Institutes of Health Research), Dr. Joy Johnson, will open the evening with a discussion of the advances in women’s health research in Canada.

This free event is open to anyone with an interest in women’s health. Guests can attend in person or over the internet via live webcast.

Speakers include:

* Judy Norsigian, Executive Director and co-founder of Our Bodies, Ourselves
* Dr. Joy Johnson, Director of the Institute for Gender and Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
* Dr. Lorraine Greaves, Director of the BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health
* Dr. Jerilynn Prior, Founder and Director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research

Details:
Date: April 24, 2008
Time: 6:30pm-10:00pm
Place: Paetzold Auditorium, Vancouver General Hospital
Cost: Free, but space is limited (live webcast also available)

For tickets, call 778.782.8589 or register online.

Yay! The cause of pads for girls in Africa is taking off like crazy. This time, it’s a local fundraiser at a swanky spa, so if anyone’s up for a pedicure while supporting a good cause, then come on down to “Passion with Purpose at the Pan Pacific”. All spa services will be 10% off, plus silent auction, snacks, drinks etc. I will be there for sure, complete with a Lunapads display.

The event starts at 6pm at Spa Utopia in the Pan Pacific Hotel on Thursday April 17th.

The benefit is the brainchild of Loretta Cella, a friend of Madeleine Kipling’s, who is yet another go-getter-make-it-happen kind of gal (our favourite kind!). Loretta has long dreamed of traveling to Africa, and the purpose of the event is to raise funds for her to purchase Lunapads to take with her to distribute to girls while she’s there.

The event is limited to 30 women, so call Loretta soon if you’re interested. She is also looking for Silent auction donations: (604) 710-4480.