Equip Rural Indian Women to Build Livelihoods

Responding to the global pandemic, we decided to pivot from our regular program- Menstrual Health Resources and Employment project, to address the health and livelihood needs of our target population. Therefore, we are expanding our Asani Sanitary Napkin program to a new location in India-Jaipur, Rajasthan. We've converted one of the machines to make 3-ply non-woven surgical masks and sanitary pads. Our target is to produce and distribute up to 3MM masks in the next 10-12 months.
We would also like to inform our donors that we employed over 120 women from our livelihood projects, to produce hand-sewed face masks.
So far we have distributed over 100,000 face masks in our target communities. In the past 3 months, we have distributed care kits (masks, sanitary napkins, and food) to over 50,000 people in our communities.  

Links:

• The Desai Foundation
• Asani Sanitary Napkins

Since the launch of the project in Maharashtra, the Desai Foundation has been training and employing women for the production and distribution of Asani Sanitary Napkins. Currently, a total of 8 women are working in the production unit. These women are from the target and neighboring villages in the Nanded district. The training for women and girls on sales and distribution is on-going. In just two months, these women were able to produce 114,000 pads (14,250 packets), which are being distributed in the communities. We are proud that this program is meeting our expectations and impacting the lives of many in rural Maharashtra.