Lunapads Blog

Many of you are aware of the sad news that Goods4Girls is no longer in operation.  While there have been some calls for Lunapads, GladRags and others to pick up where G4G’s founder Deanna Duke left off, we have decided to continue the spirit of G4G’s work with our own yet-to-be-named program.

While G4G has been a major recipient of donated pads, we have also been working with many groups with aims similar to G4G’s for some time.  The latest one is the Lugari Community Resource Centre in western Kenya.  Founder Jenipher Wasike is currently in Vancouver fundraising for this wonderful initiative that includes agriculture, tree planting, and a women’s group.  The women currently make crafts which are then sold at local markets.  They also hope to start making and selling their own washable pads (more on that soon)!

Jenipher will be returning to Kenya on February 25th and we are trying to get as many Goods4Girls Kits (new name tba, but thanks in the meantime Crunchy, for our continued use of it!) donated as possible prior to her depature.  Please watch this video of Jenipher and consider purchasing a kit.  For each kit purchased until her departure, Lunapads will donate a matching kit.

PS: To view the high quality version of this video, simply hover over the arrow on the bottom right of the viewer & click HQ.  Visit our YouTube page here to rate or comment on this video. From this page, you will also be able to share our video via facebook, digg, myspace and so on. If you have your own YouTube account, please help us spread the word by adding it to your favorites. Thank you! -Lisa

Wow.  If you’re not already aware of this powerful campaign, please check it out.  For all that I love grassroots initiatives such as Goods4Girls and others that we support, it’s nice to see some big money and big names stepping up to the plate.  The central premise of the girl effect is that educating girls is the single most powerful change that can be made to improve the lives of everyone in developing nations.  From curbing the spread of HIV to reducing government corruption and reducing the incidence of violence against women, look no further than helping girls stay in school to make it happen.  Even one extra year of primary school attendance will result in a lifetime wage boost of 10 to 20 percent.Please check out their Facebook group and spread the word in whatever ways you can!

I am brimming with joy on the recent updates on several Goods4Girls projects afoot in the world.  The next installment comes from Anna and her project called “Cycle of Hope“.  While planning her trip to Kenya to do some volunteer work with HIV/Aids positive women, Anna heard about Lunapads and Goods4Girls and wanted to make this a part of her project.  Resourceful and determined, Anna contacted Lunapads, Goods4Girls, joined a local women’s group in Conneticut, and raised enough money to send 40 Goods4Girls Kits to Kenya.  Shipping products to Africa is not always easy, as we’ve learned from our experience sending Lunapads to Zimbabwe.  Not expecting a confrontation from Kenyan customs officials at the airport to pick up the Lunapads, Anna found the courage to stand up against them.  Here is her report in an email I received in mid November:

I fought Kenyan customs, and I won. At one point yesterday they were demanding over $300 from me in additional taxes and fees. I stood firm: these are donations for a charity. You can’t tax me. This is so not like me! I continue to discover power in myself I never knew I had… and this morning I brought my box of Lunapads home from the airport without paying a penny. Woo hoo!

You can read more about Anna’s trip on her blog here.  It is a wonderful story to follow.  Anna set off to Kenya to help empower other women and in the process, has come back to the United States a more empowered woman herself.  Home briefly for Christmas, Anna is heading back to Kenya in January to start an NGO to help establish sustainable incomes for the “positive” women of Kitengela.   On her follow up trip, she’ll distribute the Lunapads Goods4Girls kits to a small Kenyan-run NGO working with underprivileged teen girls in Kibera.  We look forward to your update in the new year Anna!

Back from Africa, Carrie-Jane Williams is now home and has updated her blog with some wonderful pictures from her trip to Uganda.  As posted in the Lunapads blog in June 2008, Carrie-Jane was off to Uganda for a volunteer teaching placement and research.  As a side project, she became inspired to do some fundraising to bring Lunapads Goods4Girls Kits  for school girls.  Pictured here is a local nurse talking to the girls about menstruation.

Here is the rest of Carrie-Jane’s report:“Thanks to your donations, about 50 U-Go Girl Kits were taken to girls in Uganda. They were a huge hit with the high school girls! I also brought some to a clinic at a resource centre in a village called Tekera. Because there weren’t enough kits to distribute to everybody (and there’s a huge demand!) I asked the craftswomen and tailors at the resource centre if they could make the pads themselves. We found some old scraps of material and, sure enough, 15 minutes later, a pad was made. The women will start producing pads for local school girls and women and will hopefully make a little money. Overall, the Luna experience was very empowering! U-go Girls!”

Her story in pictures from her blog are a must see.  I particularly enjoyed the pictures of the making of Lunapads (dubbed “Afripads”) by the locals and seeing the old fashioned sewing machines just like my grandmother’s.

All of us at Lunapads couldn’t be happier to see images of the beginings of a long term sustainable solution for the girls.  Thanks again Carrie-Jane for your amazing work and bringing Lunapads to Uganda.

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…)

Our Goods 4 Girls campaign continues to inspire scores of women to help girls in Africa. The latest inspiration is Anna Hawfield who, upon reading about Loretta’s trip to Kenya (which is a very moving blog post) contacted Lunapads to see how she could help while volunteering for International Volunteer HQ. Anna will be distributing Lunapads Goods 4 Girls Kits through the help of Africa Youth Trust, a local NGO that has overseen similar projects in the past. Anna will be in Nairobi for 6 weeks starting in November. To stay on top of her trip, check out her blog here at Cycle of Hope.

Just before leaving for her trip, Anna joined a women’s networking group called SECT (Southeastern Connecticut Women’s Network) and attended a local meeting of the Mastermind Group. “The core purpose of the Mastermind group is to work co-creatively with women locally and globally to facilitate them with empowerment projects in their own lives and communities. Mastermind recognizes women as an underutilized resource in the world. When these women are supported to realize their potential the quality of life world wide improves.”

In just a few weeks, Anna and generous members of SECT raised over $1,500 to fund the purchase of over 50 Lunapads Goods 4 Girls Kits. Way to go ladies! We’re looking forward to getting an update from Anna when she arrives in Nairobi and updates the blog with her story and pictures.

We are so happy to see how the act of global community service is spreading among the Lunapads community and beyond. Please contact us if you want to participate or share your story.

On behalf of the University of British Columbia’s Global Outreach Student Association, I’d like to thank you for your third annual donation of Lunapads for the 2008 Ecuador Health Project. This past summer our team worked with indigenous populations in rural communities of Bolivar, Ecuador to conduct workshops and projects with the aim of promoting healthy behaviour and improving access to clean water. One of our most impactful workshops was on reproductive health and family planning, which was attended by both men and women. We gave away the Lunapads to women and adolescent girls of the community and they were very well received. The fact that Lunapads can be washed and reused makes them the perfect choice for improving the comfort and convenience of these women.

Currently, the women living in the communities we visited have very limited access to any type of menstrual product and some used awkward homemade devices while a few obtained disposable items. Limiting waste is not only beneficial for the environment, but also their health for a number of reasons. In an area in which there are no means to easily dispose of garbage, people often burn plastic, which can result in formations of fumes which can be carcinogenic to their bodies.

Along with giving away Lunapads and educating the women on how to use them we also educated the adults on the menstrual cycle, family planning methods and STD prevention. Here is a photo after the women happily received the Lunapads donations. Some of them are also holding bracelets that they made during the workshop that will help them track their menstrual cycle as a natural family planning method. We worked with the women to explain the changes during the menstrual cycle and unfold common misconceptions such as explaining that menopause is a not disease.

Thank you again for helping us deliver such innovative and environmentally-friendly products from Canada to promote health and sustainability. The women were very excited about the attractive patterns and the soft fabric that will relieve menstrual discomfort. “Muy bien” and “Que bonita” was murmured all across the enthusiastic room.

Cheers,

Nancy Liu
Global Outreach Student Association
Ecuador Project 2008

We are excited to give an update on one of two campaigns going on to provide Lunapads to girls in Uganda. Natalie Angell, co-founder and director of the Shanti-Uganda Foundation (based right here in Vancouver, BC) approached us earlier this summer telling us about her work and her trip to Uganda. While we have become well aware of the plight girls in Africa face when menstruating and missing school, we were particularly moved to learn about the challenges women face during birth and were only happy to help Natalie in this area as well.She wrote to us yesterday with this message:To the women at Lunapads, I just wanted to email and thank you for your support in sending us to Uganda with a supply of pads for the girls we support there. I have just updated our blog with some photos of the girls with their new pads and some of the experiences they face each month.
We’re so excited to connect with you and include a lunapad in the new birth kits that Nikiah is putting together to be sold! This is a fabulous project and one that the women and midwives will benefit from! In addition to the birth kits, Shanti Uganda improves the physical, emotional and spiritual health of communities impacted by war, poverty and HIV/AIDS in Uganda . Through the use of yoga, expressive arts therapy and traditional healing, we teach children ways to heal from the inside out. Our programs restore traditional birthing practices in rural communities through education and birth assistance and relieve poverty by supporting income generating initiatives for women with HIV and AIDS. Thanks again for your support and the incredible work that you do for women around the world!

Be well,
Natalie AngellIn part 2, we’ll provide an update about the work Carrie-Jane Williams is doing in Uganda and her delivery of over 50 Lunapads “U-Go-Girl” kits. You can follow her blog here.

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 traveling 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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