Girls Just Wanna Have Pads

A project to provide reusable sanitary pads to young adolescent girls in rural Madagascar

It is not easy for young girls in rural Madagascar to manage their periods.  It is too expensive for girls to purchase sanitary pads, so most girls fold a rag in their underwear. Throughout the day, they fear that the rag will shift or leak.  Because of this, girls drop out of their daily activities: "I can't participate in sports during my period", explains one worried Malagasy teenager; "I just skip school during my period", explains another.
In addition, girls in Madagascar lack basic scientific information about puberty and menstruation. They are embarrassed and confused about the physical and emotional changes that are occurring during puberty. Only 41% of middle school girls have talked to their parents about puberty. And teachers, especially in rural schools, are uncomfortable talking about puberty and menstruation. In this context, few young girls have a trusted and informed adult to turn to. 

Every girl has a right to clean, affordable, and reliable menstrual products.
Every girl has a right to enter puberty confident and informed.

Let's give girls their rights. 

This project will: 

• Provide a menstrual kit to 1000 middle school girls, containing 8 washable cloth sanitary pads, a small carrying bag, a care sheet, and a year-long calendar to track her menstrual cycle. The girls themselves will sew their own pads, using equipment and materials provided by this project. As this is a pilot project, we will collect feedback from the girls, adjust the design accordingly, and eventually scale up the product. 

• Provide fun puberty and menstrual health education to 1000 middle school girls to break down menstrual health taboos and to ensure that girls have the information they need to navigate puberty.