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What can you do to help?

If this is a cause you would like to get involved in, there are various things you can do.

Donate/Make Reusable Cloth Pads | Donate Other Items | Donate Money | Spread The Word & Recruit Others

Donating/Making Reusable Cloth Pads

Purchase pads that will be donated
If you are unable to sew cloth pads yourself, but would like to contribute to pad donations, then this is a great option for you.  These businesses make cloth pads that you can "buy" - but instead of the pads going to you, they will be sent directly to the organisations they deal with.

• http://www.afripads.com - Afripads works in Africa making cloth pads which are sold cheaply to girls/women who need them.
• http://donatepads.clothpadshop.com - Cloth Pad Shop offers occasional pad donation sets that are sent to different organisations on your behalf.
• http://www.gladrags.com/ -  Glad Rags offers discounted pad donation sets which are sent to Zambia.
• http://www.lunapads.com/ -  Lunapads offers to accept cash donations as well as pad donation sets.
• http://www.newmoonpads.com/Charity.html - New Moon Pads will donate pads to Sister Hope on your behalf
• http://www.obsidianstar.com.au - Obsidian Star offers discounted pad donation sets, which are sent to various organisations.

Sew some pads
If you can sew, and would like to make cloth pads to donate, you can sew these up and post them to the agency itself.  Most agencies may prefer to receive one large shipment of pads than several smaller ones, and it is quite difficult to find agencies that accept cloth pad donations, so that is why we are working on getting a network of people who will collect donated pads and send them on to the aid organisations in larger batches. The Donate page has information on any agencies that will accept cloth pads.  We currently know of these agencies that will accept pad donations.
 
• http://www.shantiuganda.org- The Shanti Uganda Society.  Accepts donations of cloth pads for aid for women in Uganda.
• http://padsforprison.googlepages.com - Pads for Prisons project.  Accepts donations of cloth pads to send to prison inmates and staff in Sudan.
• http://www.lunapads.com/ -  Lunapads offers to send your handsewn pads as well as offering a service to buy their pads to donate
• Project Thrive - has a program creating menstrual kits for girls/young women.  Accepts cloth pads or money
• http:www.jonahsmissions.weebly.com - Does aid work and is looking for cloth pad donations to aid the women.
• http://www.aids.net.au - Does aid work in Africa, building and running schools, and requires cloth pads for girls/women there.
• http://algerianaction.wordpress.com/how-to-help/project-washables
• http://www.impactforwomen.org.au - When I contacted this organisation (who works with Women's shelters in Australia), they were keen on the idea of having cloth pads included in packs given to women.


Lunapads apparently works with the following organisations - however they may not accept individual donations and may work only with Lunapads

• Sexual Rights Centre (Zimbabwe)
• Lugari Community Resource Centre (Kenya)
• Kibaale Community School (Uganda)
• Imagine1Day (Ethiopia)
• Rafiki Africa (Kenya)


(Please note http://www.sishope.org is no longer accepting cloth pad donations, and instead is donating portions of product sales to funding cloth pad kits).

Top

Donate Money
Most agencies, orphanages, shelters etc. accept monetary donations, which are put towards all needs - including menstrual products.  Usually they buy disposable menstrual products, however there are a few who deal with reusable products.  You can donate this directly to the agencies. In most cases there is no way to ensure your particular donation is used to purchase menstrual products (and not to administration or other purchases), however they will be greatful for your donation and every little bit helps.

These agencies that will accept donations of money to go towards providing reusable cloth pads:

• http://www.afripads.com - Afripads accepts donations which pay for pads to be sent to girls/women in Africa
• http://sheinnovates.com  - Has a program where women are given a loan to start their own business making cloth pads - which in turn helps their community of women.
• http://www.projectthrive.org - has a program creating menstrual kits for girls/young women.  Accepts cloth pads or money
• http://www.shantiuganda.org- The Shanti Uganda Society.  Accepts donations of cloth pads for aid for women in Uganda.
• http://padsforprison.googlepages.com - Pads for Prisons project.  Accepts donations of cloth pads to send to prison inmates and staff in Sudan.
• http://www.sishope.org - Sister Hope.  Accepts donations of cloth pads to make kits for young women in developing countries.

http://www.huruinternational.org - HURU International.  An organisation that accepts donations of money to use for projects where cloth pads are sewn by women in developing countties for use by young women in need.
• http://www.alolafoundation.org - Creates Maternity packs for women in East Timor including cloth pads.  Only accepts monetary donations for women there to make the pads.

 
These agencies that will accept donations of money to go towards providing disposable pads (though most organisations should):
• http://www.sanitarypadsafrica.org - Has projects that educate young girls, and provides disposable products
• http://www.feedthechildren.org.uk/pages/padsandpants.shtml
• http://www.actsa.org - An agency working in Zimbabwe.  Only accepts monetary donations as it prefers to have disposable products made in Zimbabwe to support the local economy, and water shortage means reusable products are not possible.
• http://www.jcore.org.uk/sanitary.php
• http://www.impactforwomen.org.au - When I contacted this organisation (who works with Women's shelters in Australia), they were keen on the idea of having cloth pads included in packs given to women.  They also have need for disposable pads.

Donate fabric & Supplies
If you would like to donate fabric that is suitable to making into cloth pads, there are many sewing people who would love it!   For making cloth pads you need an absorbent core layer (eg. bamboo/cotton/hemp or microfibre, flannelette/flannel), something for the top (eg printed cottons, flannelette/flannel, jersey), a waterproof layer is preferable (eg PUL or fleece) and is also used to make "wetbags".  There is also the need for snaps/press studs for the pads, and perhaps "velcro" for the wetbags.  You might be able to purchase these things online and have them shipped directly to someone who can use them to sew pads (You could contact pad makers who donate to organisations and see what supplies they would like - particularly those listed at the top of this page as sellers who donate pads).  You might also like to see if you can arrange for people you know, or start a workshop through a school, church or community group to get together to sew pads (See below)

The following organisations specifically look for fabric:

• http://www.goonj.info/sanitary%20napkins.php - An organisation that collects 1foot squares of fabric to make into cloth pads for women in India.  (They did not answer my e-mail where I asked if they accepted donations of actual pads.)
• http://www.imagitek.com/cuca - An organisation that collects fabric which is taken to Cuba where it is sewn into cloth pads.  I am not sure if they accept donations of made up pads.


Donate Underpants
Not all of the women who need menstrual product donations will have underpants to wear them with. This page has more information, but if you are making/buying cloth pads to donating, or you'd like to donate something other than pads, fabric or money, you may want to consider underpants too!

Donate Unused disposable products
If you've switched to reusable products and still have supplies of disposable ones, or you'd like to buy packs of disposable products to donate, most aid organisations should accept them.  You may like to consider donating organic cotton tampons instead of rayon ones, to limit the risk of TSS).
 

Donate Used products
There may be an agency who will accept donations of unwanted used products, such as menstrual cups or clean (unstained) used cloth pads.  This may not be possible for health reasons, but it never hurts to ask.

Join the Yahoogroup
We have a yahoogroup where people can discuss pad donating efforts and make contacts to get donations sent where they are needed. Maybe issue a challenge and see if we can get lots of pads sewn up!  Or find people to donate fabric to who would love to sew pads to donate.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/donatepads

Have a "Sewing Bee", "Workshop", "Stitch & Bitch" or "Pad Party"
Whatever you want to call it....Gather some friends together and sew!  Bring a plate of food to share along with your sewing machine, fabric and supplies and all gather together somewhere and sew!  Those who can't sew can be useful to trace out the patterns onto fabric, cut them out and pin the assembled layers together - so there is no excuse not to participate!  Gather some school mothers together, or church groups.  Perhaps even contact your local school, kindergarten, playgroup, community groups or whatever and see if you can organise a gathering of people willing to help this cause.

Recruit Others & Spread Awareness
Get other people involved.  There are lots of ways you can get people involved.  Try:

• Contact your local schools, sporting groups, churches, community groups, kindergartens, clubs etc. and see if they can do fundraising activities to raise money to give to aid organisations.
• Schools that offer a sewing class might be able to do a pad sewing lesson, where students are  taught to make cloth pads which can be donated.  After school sewing workshops might be able to be organised.
• Contact local businesses who might be interested in donating money to the cause or who could donate supplies.
• Hold workshops where you can make people aware of this, and help sew pads to donate
• Put up posters and hand out flyers where you can.  Best locations would be those where women frequent.  Also try libraries, student union buildings and other places.

Spread Awareness Online
Another way you can help is to spread awareness (of this website and/or the cause in general) to other women.  The more women who know, the more help can be given to those in need.  There are banners you can use to link back to this site if you wish.  To save the image, right click and select "Save As" to save it to your computer.  Please don't link directly to them from here (in case the server changes).  Please link them back to www.donatepads.org