Pack Leaders :: Madeleine Shaw & Suzanne Siemens

Dignifying Zimbabwean women with access to sanitary protection.  When a friend of Madeleine Shaw's sent her a copy of the Sanitary Protection Appeal in the December 2003 issue of Marie Claire, Madeleine was appalled.   The article detailed the political situation in Zimbabwe - focusing on the impact on women and specifying their lack of access to hygienic menstrual products.

Seeking a way to help... Madeleine contacted the website referenced in the article, but received no response.  However, in February of 2004 she and her partner, Suzanne, were contacted by a Zimbabwean/Canadian woman named Isabella Wright requesting assistance on behalf of a different organization, WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arising).  Since that time, both Madeleine and Suzanne have utilized their company, Lunapads International, to send 6 shipments of factory seconds - a value of about $1500.00 (US).  This shipment alone has met the hygiene needs of up to 100 Zimbabwean women.  Included with these shipments are a collection of disposable pads that customers have donated for the cause.

Since they started rallying to this cause, some European disposable manufacturers have also donated (see image at right), but as of this time Isabella has shared with Madeleine and Suzanne that the same level of generosity has not been witnessed from the larger North American companies. "What I love about this is that it's a great way for our customers to use their leftover disposables in a productive way, making use of something that would otherwise be garbage.  Also, I know that I for one typically feel helpless when it comes to issues such as poverty in Africa, and it's wonderful to be able to help in this very direct, focused, personal way." - Madeleine

Most Zimbabwean women cannot afford the outrageous prices charged... for pads and tampons (a box of 10 Tampax tampons costs roughly $17,000 Zim/$15 CDN/$12 US). This is incredible even by North American standards, but especially so where the minimum monthly wage for domestic workers lucky enough to have a job is less than the equivalent of $20 CDN per month. Many women are also displaced, so there is not even an opportunity for them to make their own pads from scraps of fabric/cotton wool. According to Ann Cotton, executive director of the charity Camfed, "Pads are unavailable or too expensive, so [women] use crushed bark wrapped up in old cloth or bits of sacking as padding."  Women even will use strips of newspaper - getting painful infections such as thrush from the ink (there is 1 doctor for every 6700 people in Zimbabwe).  In prisons, they are given nothing at all and just sit there menstruating.

Please consider playing a part in dignifying women in Zimbabwe.   Lunapads International is donating factory second Lunapads to WOZA. They are asking for your help as well by doing the following:

• Once you have purchased your new reusable menstrual products, send your leftover disposable pads and tampons to one of the addresses found at their website, here.  Please be attentive to the special shipping requirements for this humanitarian aid project.
• Purchase Lunapads and they will be sent on your behalf to Zimbabwean women. Lunapads will pay for the shipping costs. (If you are wish to purchase Lunapads on behalf of women in Zimbabwe, please call them directly at : 1-888-590-2299