I live in a house with 17 girls (not counting our 2 female staff members). With that said, there will be blood.
Period.
Or I should say periodS. Now don’t run away, because I need your help with something.
In fact I want to tell you a little secret. There’s this cool thing called a menstrual cup. Have you ever heard of one?
It’s a life saver, and a planet saver! Basically it’s a silicone cup (depending on brand) that is used kind of like a tampon—only it’s amazing because it doesn’t have to be checked every time you go to the loo. In fact, it stays put for 12 hours just fine. Then at the end of the day, just dump it out, rinse it, put it back in again. There is no absorption, so it’s not bad for your body and can’t cause TSS. It’s CLEAN! Plus there is no need for finding toilet paper to wrap up a tampon or a pad and then find a trash can, etc… (those are all impossible to find here in Kenyan public toilets). It saves the environment from being filled with disposable feminine products that lay around for 500 years or so…
I said all this to say, here in Kenya so many women are using RAGS. Literally. They are making a bloody mess! With the taboo around periods, so many girls and women are too embarrassed to actually buy pads, IF they can afford them. Plus, poverty is an issue. We deal with women who can’t afford to buy monthly products so an alternative is needed.
Menstrual cups are great. There, I said it. It’s a one time purchase and lasts 10 years, or 15 years, or until you lose it, or hit menopause.
Where do you come in on this? Well, I’ve been contacting ‘cup’ companies trying to see if they’ll donate some to the community to help these women.
The average cup costs around $35 each. It’s a one time purchase; however, I found a company that will reduce the price to $10 each if we promise to distribute them to needy women.
So, there ya have it. I would like to order a bunch of cups (5 for the girls who’ve started in our home) plus a good number more to distribute through our community work.
If you are interested in helping, shoot me an email: [email protected] or designate a donation. Thanks so much!
For more information on ‘cups’ check out these sites:
http://www.ladycup.eu/
http://www.femmecup.com/benefits.html
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