Lunapads

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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If you haven’t read about the issue (or seen the recent Always commercials) there is an immense problem with girls in developing countries who miss school due to being unable to cope with their menses in a clean and comfortable manner, often resorting to using twigs, tree bark, grass and rags. Always’ answer to this is the Protecting Futures campaign. As discussed in the previous entry, disposables are not a real or sustainable solution to this problem.

Goods 4 Girls is the brainchild of Deanna Duke (known online as eco-blogger Crunchy Chicken), who has taken matters into her own hands by connecting washable pad manufacturers, like us, and their customers, with groups working directly with girls in African nations. Read her original blog post about the disposables donations issue here.

The issue of school girls in Africa has been on our radar for some time. Over the past 5 years, we have been contacted by many amazing women about girls in all parts of the world who need our help. Because we’ve never been able to come up with a practical and reliable solution to connect our efforts with our customers, we have simply been donating pads as requested. To date, we have sent pads to Zimbabwe (on numerous occasions), Kenya, Swaziland, Uganda, Mali, Ecuador and Mexico. We also have a good friend working in several local communities in Africa teaching them how to sew their own Lunapads. So, we know first hand how real this problem is.

Thanks to Deanna, we are supporting Goods 4 Girls in two ways: by sending an initial shipment of Lunapads, nylon purses and Lunapanties to girls Africa and by creating our new Goods 4 Girls Lunapads Kit and Goods 4 Girls Lunapanties Kit so that customers can purchase them for donation.

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ProtectingFutures.com

This is one of two entries about the issue of girls in Africa missing school due to not having menstrual products, including the current Always and Tampax campaign to “donate” disposable pads to girls in Africa. Below is a guest post from Christina Vogel, a customer in Des Moines IA, who eloquently articulates what many of us at Lunapads, as well as our colleagues and customers, have expressed about the campaign. The second entry is about a new organization, Goods 4 Girls, that is working to address this issue in a sustainable way, as well as a new Lunapads Good 4 Girls Kit that customers can donate.

“I also wanted to tell you about a conversation I had over an Always commercial. They showed a young girl in Africa that could not go to school because of her period. They stated that their company sends their products so that girls like her don’t miss out on an education. As I watched this commercial I realized that giving them disposable pads and tampons in an area that does not have sanitation set up is not truly helping their situation. Nor does it truly help empower women by holding them down to a company that they will have to use for the majority of their life. I started to think about your products and how truly helpful they are. They are made with a woman’s needs in mind and are not a continuous buying process. Last but not least they do not require the a sanitation process after use. You can simply wash and reuse. I am currently looking into setting up funding to buy your products and send them to women across the world that need these products to go to school, work, or complete their daily lives, without harming their environment. I once again would like to thank you for your products not only for the ease that they have brought to my life, but the ease that I hope they bring to women all across the world!”

We are always happy to contribute display samples, stickers and information as well as make donations for fundraising purposes to groups supporting women’s reproductive health and/or a cleaner planet. A recent example took place at the University of Virginia…

Dear Lunapads,
I am writing to let you know that our event, Vulvapalooza at the University of Virginia, was a huge success. We had at least 800 students pass through our sexual health fair, and we sold out for The Vagina Monologues both evenings. About a dozen student groups had booths at the event, with games ranging from a quiz about consensual sex to pin the clitoris on the vagina. Our raffle table (where we featured Lunapads and a Diva Cup in an alternative menstrual solution gift bag) was also a huge success! We screened DVDs about our beneficiary (Medica Zenica - a rehabilitation and education center for war traumatized women and children in Bosnia) and raffled off a lot of great prizes. I personally stood at the table and talked up Lunapads and the Divacup, and we ended up raising about $50 with this one raffle (see attached photo). So many women were interested in the products, but had never heard about them before, so even those who did not win came away with some new ideas about menstruation. My friend won the items, and she cannot wait to try them Overall, it was definitely a hit, thanks to your involvement. We raised over $5000 in all, from raffles and tickets sales. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your donation, and how much fun we had at the event. I am so thankful that you decided to participate in our event. Thank you!
Yours truly,
Brenna Lynch

Thank you, Brenna, for your fantastic energy and activism - we are proud to support you!

There has been a lot of discussion lately on the web about girls in Africa in the wake of Tampax and Always TV ads on the topic. While we have yet to complete our assessment of the relative good actually being done by disposable products being made available to girls in need, for our part we regularly donate Lunapads to organizations working with women and girls globally: the latest recipients happen to be in Swaziland.

In January of this year Cindy Myint, a customer in Atlanta GA, wrote to us: “I am writing on behalf of a charitable group that my mother runs for the benefit of a small village called Nkamazi in Swaziland, Africa. To give you the quick background, my mother is the Executive Director of a small AIDS non-profit in Moncton, NB. She was approached a few years ago to partner with an African group and ultimately to improve the lives of some 80 children orphaned by parents who have perished from AIDS and its complications.

This is a grassroots movement with little funding. However, they’ve made a big impact in the little time they’ve been working there. Most notably, they have 39 children enrolled in school with their fees being paid largely by individuals and groups in the Moncton and Saint John areas. They have also established a sustainable garden with land donated by the village chief and created a sewing group. They’ve raised funds for several sewing machines and received many donation from Canadians of fabric and notions which are hand carried to Swaziland by dedicated volunteers.

Over the holidays, my mother was telling me that the girls in Africa miss on average one week of school because of their menstrual cycle. They actually stay home from class and use rags for roughly a week. In an 8 month school year, this equates to 2 missed months of school for the girls. My mother had never heard of any natural/reusable alternatives until I told her about your products. I was turned on to Lunapads by an acquaintance of mine here in Atlanta who swears by them. When my cycle returned after my first pregnancy, I was pretty bummed about having to stock up on pads and tampons after being nearly 2 years free of the annoyance. That’s when my friend told me about your products and I had my husband hunt them down the last time he was in Vancouver.”

Lunapads responded immediately with a donation of 4 dozen pad and liner sets. The photo above is Cindy’s mom, Debby showing the girls how to use their new Lunapads.

Cindy writes: “I am happy to report that the Lunapads were extremely well received by the girls in Swaziland. Attached is a picture of two girls getting their pads, along with some instruction of how to use and care for them. Once word got out to the girls that they could get these pads, they started coming to where Debby and Julie were staying to get them.”

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

We are often asked to contribute samples and information to various women’s and environmental groups. The Younger Women’s Task Force is a great example. Pictured here are participants in the YWTF’s recent national leadership conference in Washington DC, holding the Lunapads gift packs we donated.

The YWTF is a project of the National Council of Women’s Organizations in the USA. It is a nationwide, diverse and inclusive grassroots movement dedicated to organizing younger women and their allies to take action on issues that matter most to them. By and for younger women, YWTF works both within and beyond the women’s movement, engaging all who are invested in advancing the rights of younger women. Through its twelve chapters across the USA, YWTF members are working to:
- Provide a stronger voice in the policy making process for women in their 20’s and 30’s
- Increase the impact of younger women activists through the articulation of, and collaboration on, a common agenda
- Create a culture of inclusion where decision-making and power are practiced collectively, and members from diverse backgrounds participate in all levels of YWTF
- Define and develop the next generation of women leaders
- Create a local and national network for peer mentoring, networking and sharing resources
Sounds like our kind of thing!