10000 Washable Sanitary Pads for African women

Fund raising through GlobalGiving 

We can’t believe it is already 3 months since the 27th of November and the huge success of GlobalGiving’s 2018 GivingTuesday. The response was fantastic and we reach far more than the personal target we set for ourself. We were able to raise a whopping $2400. We are humbled by the amazing support. With the funding we raised through GlobalGiving we will be able to pay for training for three seamstresses, buy the fabric for the first batch of 2000 reusable sanitary pads, and pay our team a salary for the next year.

Selection of staff

With the money raised we were able to start the process of selecting candidates for the our project. We decided that we would only start with three candidates to get the initial training to make the first batch of sanitary pads. We picked three wonderful ladies that we knew from a previous project, that all had some form of formal training in sewing, making them the perfect candidates for the first stage of the project. They also have hearts of gold making them a joy to work with.

Training

Although our first three candidates are all skilled seamstresses, making reusable sanitary pads is a complicated project. A lot of emphasis is put on quality control. Making a high quality project is of the upmost importance. These pads must be able to serve the recipients for up to three years. To insure that our team delivers the best product possible, we are in talks with another organisation in the reusable sanitary pad sector, to help us train our team of seamstresses. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we want to learn from the best. We aim to have this partnership locked down in the coming weeks and to share the exiting details with you in our next report.

Equipment

We are lucky enough to already have 4 sewing machine available for our team to work on. These machine will need to be maintained and funds for this would need to be raised either through the Global Giving platform or through funds generated through the selling of reusable sanitary pads.

Distribution

Because Hlokomela's main focus is health care, we already have an existing network for distribution as our not-for-profit medical clinics reach more than 20000 young women and girls annually. We have however also been in talks with numerous other organisations in regards to the distribution of our sanitary pads. There are multiple organisations in our area already giving out disposable sanitary pads to school girls and women. The projects have shown interest in moving away from disposable sanitary pads and to rather give out reusable pads. This is a great opportunity for us to further diversify our distribution channels, but also to have these organisations spend there money on our pads rather than spending it on disposable products. This gives us the chance to make the projects slightly more sustainable and helps us build a business out of reusable sanitary pads that will in the long run help our team of seamstresses with permanent employment.

This project is off to a great start and we would like to thank our GlobalGiving friends and donors for your amazing support over the last 3 months!  You make all the difference to our work here at the Hlokomela.