I’ve been meaning to mention Goods 4 Girls for awhile now, ever since I first found out about it through my friend Lara. I was reminded of it today when I came across Party in my Pants via Bust magazine’s newsletter. Party in my Pants (aka PIMP) makes reusable cloth menstrual pads and through their shop they offer a way to let you purchase pads to donate to Goods 4 Girls.
Goods 4 Girls is a fabulous non-profit that collects new cloth pads to distribute to women and girls in Africa without access to menstrual care products. I was so happy when I found out that so many other people had the same reaction I did to companies like Tampax and Always, who have been recently airing commercials about how many young girls in Africa end up missing school due to lack of access to menstrual care products. Tampax and Always claim that by purchasing their products you help them fund sending lots of their disposables to these girls, thus ensuring they don’t miss school anymore.
Personally I think this is a little ridiculous. While the thought is nice, the way they’re going about it is all wrong (but of course they make the disposables, so they’re not going to advocate reusables). Deanna Duke had the same reaction to this issue and decided to do something about it by starting Goods 4 Girls. Check out their blog to see all the amazing work they’ve already accomplished in a very short time or donate to help out the cause.
[...] I was going through my blog feeds today and found MissMalaprop’s post about Goods for Girls. They send reusable cloth pads to girls in Africa so they won’t miss school because of the lack of feminine hygiene products. You can donate cash or cloth pads. What a wonderful way to help women who are less fortunate. [...]
Left by Blogasaurus » Blog Archive » Goods 4 Girls on May 8th, 2008