NOW is a GREAT time to DONATE!  

All donations to this project will be matched, doubling your donation & impact!

THE CHALLENGE

Around the world, 100,000,000 girls miss out on an average of one week of schooling each month because they lack access to adapted menstrual hygiene products[1]. Frequent school absences and a feeling of shame (owing to the stigma surrounding periods) lead girls to drop out of school, undermining girls’ chances of completing their education and becoming socially and financially independent. A lack of education, skills and qualifications exposes vulnerable girls and young women to harmful socio-economic dangers.

Period poverty is a widespread problem affecting countless girls and women in Benin: there are few programs and services in Benin that address this major problem and support girls and young women through appropriate menstrual hygiene awareness-raising and management programs. Yet, ensuring girls’ and women’s access to safe menstrual hygiene products is key to protecting girls’ right to education and promoting girls’ and women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Why do girls in Benin need access to reusable sanitary pads?

For various reasons:

• Cultural: traditionally, owing to a lack of access to sanitary protection, many young girls and women in Benin resort to using rags and pieces of cloth that they wash and reuse. Enabling women to make their own washable sanitary pads would ensure girls’ and women’s access to safer menstrual pads and guarantee better menstrual hygiene and fewer infections.
• Financial: it’s estimated that, in France, each woman spends between €5 and €7 per month on menstrual hygiene products[2]. In Benin, the price of sanitary pads varies depending on the quality of the product: the most effective products can be relatively expensive, even prohibitively so, in comparison to women’s revenues. Access to reusable sanitary pads would enable women to reduce their expenditure on menstrual hygiene products.
• Health: Several studies[3] have shown that many disposable sanitary products contain potentially hazardous chemicals. Conversely, a reusable pad that is used and cleaned properly can significantly reduce health risks, including the risk of infections.
• Environmental: Research shows that, on average, a woman will dispose of 290 sanitary pads per year[4], and between 10,000 and 15,000 menstrual hygiene products (such as sanitary pads, tampons, and applicators) throughout her lifetime[5]. By contrast, women who use reusable sanitary pads, which have a lifespan of 5 years, will significantly reduce their waste, disposing of 1,450 fewer menstrual hygiene products. That’s a significant reduction in waste, which is beneficial for the environment!  
• Promoting good menstrual hygiene management: The training workshops, which teach women how to make reusable sanitary pads, are also an opportunity to raise awareness about how to properly use and maintain a reusable sanitary pad and maintain good menstrual hygiene. Workshop participants learn about menstrual hygiene products and management, and informed discussions help to break the taboo surrounding menstruation.

[1] NGO Règles élémentaires

[2]  Slate article, 2019

[3] 2018 report from the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety

[4] According to the blog Dans ma culotte

[5] Planetoscope’s statistics

The SOLUTIONS WE'RE PROPOSING

W4’s field partner, Fille du Monde, conducts girls’ menstrual hygiene management workshops in various cities in Benin to raise awareness among girls and women about menstrual hygiene and to train women to make reusable sanitary pads. The objectives of the workshops are: Learn, Create, Pass on. During the workshops, the girls and women learn how to create their own reusable sanitary pads, and they also learn how to pass on their knowledge to other girls and women in their local communities.

Making sanitary pads is not merely a manual exercise: the workshops also aim to enable participants to improve their knowledge of good hygiene management and learn how to share this knowledge, along with their acquired skills in sanitary pad-making, with other girls and women in their communities. Moreover, over time, the production of reusable sanitary pads serves as an income generating activity for many young women, thereby promoting their economic empowerment, too.

THE IMPACT OF GIVING

Your donation will help to purchase the materials required for the reusable sanitary pad-making training workshops: 2 sewing machines, cotton fabric, waterproof fabric, absorbent fabric, as well as thread, scissors, needles, fasteners, and pins.

A €5 donation covers the cost of making 4 washable sanitary pads, so every donation, of whatever amount, can make a positive difference!

W4 and FDM are committed to financial transparency: below is the approximate budget for one workshop with a breakdown of the costs:  

Each workshop caters for 12 participants:
The average cost of 3 workshops (benefitting approximately 36 girls and women) is as follows:

• 6 metres of cotton cloth: 6,000 CFA francs = €9
• 6 metres of  waterproof fabric: 7,000 CFA francs = €10
• 4 metres of absorbent towel: 2,000 CFA francs = €3

Our goal is to conduct 54 workshops in the towns of Parakou and Cotonou, between September 2020 and September 2021, benefitting over 650 girls and women.

By adding 20,000 CFA francs (€30) per year to cover other miscellaneous costs (more needles, thread, fasteners, scissors, etc.), the annual cost of the workshops amounts to 290,000 CFA francs (€443).

Moreover, your donation will also help fund:

• The travel of local volunteer seamstresses who are giving their time to help our local team host the workshops and are contributing to the training: 60,000 CFA francs = €91
• The purchase of 2 sewing machines: 131,000 CFA francs = €200

Thus, the total cost of the project amounts to: 481,000 CFA francs = €734

Of course, the more funds we raise, the more workshops we will be able to host—and the greater the number of girls and women who will benefit from the program.

100%, i.e., every cent, of your donation will be allocated to funding the workshops in Benin. W4 & FDM are committed to ensuring transparency and tracking the on-the-ground impact of every single donation. We will regularly update you on the progress of the program, and we will report back to you on the precise use and impact of your donation.

Make a donation today! Even €5 can make a positive difference in the lives of girls and women from underprivileged communities in Benin. Your giving enables girls and women to learn about menstrual hygiene management and gain access to safe, affordable menstrual protection. You will have a positive impact on the environment and ensure that girls and young women do not miss out on crucial education!