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In many parts of the world, for many different reasons, there are women who are in need of effective menstrual products.  It might be too expensive for them to buy them, or they may not even be available at all.  This problem affects young women/girls in schools and orphanages (often orphaned as a result of war, or disease), remote village women, women in areas of natural disasters and even women's shelters.  There are thousands of women in need of these basic items we consider a necessity. How does that effect their lives? In developing countries, some girls stay home from school when menstruating or drop out once they reach that age.  If  they cannot afford disposables (or there are none available) they have to use whatever they can find.  Often leaves or newspapers, cloth rags if they are lucky.  Usually these are not absorbent enough.  Disposable products are often too expensive to afford or simply not available. In times of disaster (tsunami's, cyclones etc.) women who might have otherwise been able to obtain these products themselves, may be left with nothing, and stores supplying disposables can be destroyed along with everything else. Even when disposable pads are distributed via aid organisations, this is an ongoing need for so many women.

But it doesn't have to be that way.  Aid agencies are already providing menstrual products to women in need, usually disposable ones, but they need your help too.  Whether that be to donate unused disposable products, donate reusable cloth pads, or even donate money to aid agencies (some specifically deal with this issue)  - there *are* things *you* can do to help.  If you've ever made an emergency trip down to the shops to buy a pack of pads or tampons.... think about what it would be like if there were no shops to buy them from, or no money to afford them.

The main focus of this website is to draw attention to this problem and to give ideas of how interested woman can help out.  If you would like to know where you can donate money or disposable products to, see the What Can You Do section.  Another part of this website is to raise awareness of the reusable cloth pad alternative.  Which has several benefits over donations of disposable menstrual products.  Please see the Disposable Vs Reusable section for more information on this.