We’re excited to announce our new partnership with Empower Women in Africa! Together, we hope to bring educational and economic opportunities to girls and women in rural Africa. And you can help: by purchasing an Empower Kit to be given to a girl in need, you can help her complete her education and achieve her dreams!

Here’s Lori, founder of EWA, to share with you the successes of their first year:

“Empower Women in Africa was founded in February 2011 with the vision of providing a pathway to education for girls throughout rural Africa. To accomplish this, we provide scholarships to girls living in poverty and showing promise in the classroom, and by providing reusable cloth menstrual pads so there is not a struggle every month to find sanitary products with limited funds.

In our first year, we have been able to provide scholarships to five girls at Andara Combined School in Namibia. These scholarships cover every cost that comes along with their education from their school fees, school uniform and even a food stipend for their families when good grades are achieved to encourage the family to take an interest in their daughter’s education.

We have also been instrumental in getting over 2200 cloth menstrual pads to girls in Namibia and Uganda. The recipients have ranged from an orphanage with Show Mercy International, schools, conferences and after school clubs. Thanks to GladRags, Days for Girls and a growing population of volunteers for getting all of the pads sewn.

In 2012, we’re excited to be working with GladRags to be their exclusive pad donation partner. Because of their commitment to our cause, our pad program is expected to at least double in our second year! This also opens up more time to focus on our scholarship program and we already have five more girls selected for sponsorship!”

Helen has been in Kenya, where she’s working as part of her Peace Corps Volunteer position. You can view her guest post about the Female Hygiene program. Below is an update on how the project is going!

Hello GladRags readers! We’ve started our sanitary pads educational program this week here in the Nyanza Province of Kenya. We started with a small group of ten girls from Omiro Mixed Secondary School. This school was priority number one due to the girl’s daily interactions with the opposite sex (some schools in our location are female only). The schools has 110 females enrolled, so we are planning on 4 more groups of 25 girls before the term ends in August.

We discussed the high cost of disposable pads and then I explained about the donations made so they could have the materials to make their own re-usable pads, they are very grateful. Here is an online album that I will update regularly with photos of the project: https://picasaweb.google.com/mcguirkhelen/FemaleHygeine . The girls were so excited to work on this project and began asking many questions relevant to the subject. More to come soon, as the project is quickly gaining momentum!

Want to help other women in Africa gain access to reusable pads? Click here to learn how you can donate GladRags to girls in Sierra Leone!

We last heard from Becky when she reported on how Moon Cups were changing the lives of Ethiopian women. Here is her latest update from the Trampled Rose.

Hello!

The best part of being at the Trampled Rose is seeing the transformation of the women in our program. They arrive almost unable to hold their heads up and then they graduate full of confidence, hope, and new direction for their future. The part I like the least is writing reports and project proposals.

Unfortunately for me, I have spent the last few weeks writing reports about our past activities and proposals for the future. There are so many good things coming and I promise to keep you informed as more details are worked out. For now, it’s been almost six years since we first opened our gate to do our best to help. Thank you for all your encouragement and help over these years. Can you believe that we’ve helped over 1500 women?

I thought you might like to read the story of Maeza I just wrote for one of those reports I was complaining about. I attached her photo. You can see her when she arrived.

Love,

Becky Kiser
Trampled Rose, Inc.
www.trampledrose.org

These are the grateful words of Maeza herself : “This is the best time in my life! I started to be human again. I know how to write and calculate money. I am happy. I never imagined getting such a chance in my life.” Her husband said “I am so happy and thankful! The trampled Rose helped us financially because my wife knows how to get additional income to change our life. Thank you!”

But Maesa’s life has not always been so happy. When Maeza Miskir arrived at the Trampled Rose her life had already been a hard one. She was born twenty eight years before in the Amhara region in the northern part of Ethiopia to a sustenance farming family. She has four other sisters and two brothers. When she was young there was no school in her area and her parents didn’t consider education important for a girl. They wanted her to get married and be safe instead.

Although Maeza was only seven years old and had no desire to get married she was given to her husband to begin the duties of a wife. This was a terrifying experience for her so as soon as she had the chance she ran away from the man she hardly knew. Because of her illiteracy life was difficult and she married again.

In her second marriage she became pregnant with her first child. In the area where she lived there were very scarce medical services available so most of the women give birth in their own homes or the home of their in laws with a traditional birth attendant. These birth attendants have limited knowledge about difficult child birth deliveries. Maeza was in labor for five full days. At the end of her labor the baby was stillborn.

The pressure on her birth canal had caused a lack of blood flow to her bladder and she developed a vescovaginal fistula. She began to leak urine uncontrollably.. Her husband was offended by her condition and especially her smell. He asked her to leave so he could marry another woman who could have children and he wanted to be free of Maeza.

Maeza’s second husband returned her to her family home. She lived with them for two years when she heard about surgery at a Fistula Hospital near her region. But her depression and bad luck increased when she underwent her surgery only to discover that she seemed to be incurable. The leaking continued. She lived for one more year in hopelessness until she met a new educated man. He loved her and told her that he was willing to marry her because you never know what can happen in the future.

By this time Maeza had been leaking urine down her legs for more than seven years.

One day she was approached by the Amhara development association who was contacting women in their area with fistula on behalf of the Trampled Rose, Inc. Maeza and her husband jumped at the chance for Maeza to learn to read and write and begin a business of her own. Because the problem of fistula is so prevalent in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, Maeza’s sister in law also suffered from fistula. They decided to travel together with the transportation service provided by the Trampled Rose to the city of Addis Ababa.

Maeza was frightened, hungry, tried and dirty when she arrived at the gates of the Trampled Rose. During her orientation she was taught about the causes and cures for fistula. She was especially relieved to learn that fistula is not a curse from God but only a medical condition caused by her prolonged labor. As part of her orientation she was taken to a hospital to be checked for other diseases that could make her studies difficult. She was also examined by an expert fistula surgeon to make sure that her fistula was indeed curable. Her pleasure was immeasurable when she discovered that she did indeed have a chance to be cured by surgery.

Maeza began her literacy class during her first week. She was taught the alphabet by using small stones and sticks to make letters. She could read 180 words in her first week. This quick process gave her courage to try more. In fact, Maeza was the outstanding student in her graduation from the Trampled Rose. She also enjoyed the social atmosphere of being with twenty seven other women with her same problems.

After Maeza could read and write she began her business training of Sambusa making, ironing, traditional bread baking , and jewelry making. She also learned how to manage money and how to make a business plan. She even enjoyed a field trip to a bank to learn how to open her own account. She was surprised because she thought that banks were only for rich people.

Maeza’s surgery was indeed successful and she returned to her happy husband to open her own small shop selling Sambusa, traditional beer, tea, and taking in ironing with the startup capital she received from the Trampled Rose.

October is National Breast Health Awareness Month, and in preparation we bring you this guest post by Maria Davis. What actions will you take to help end breast cancer?

Photo by Courtney Robinson

Would you walk 60 miles to cure breast cancer? Millions of people do just that every year as part of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day For The Cure. The walk covers approximately 60 miles over a period of three days, and is held in numerous cities across the United States, and in many countries around the world. In 2010, the 3-Day was held in 15 U.S. cities, and raised over $87 million.

The 3-Day walk is being held in 14 cities across the United States in 2011. Events began in July, and are running through mid-November, so you still have several opportunities to join in. Participating is easy if a 3-Day is held in or near your city. But how can you get there if the city where you want to walk is far away? If you need to travel to get there, here’s how you can save some money while you’re raising it for a good cause.

Recruit a Sponsor

It can sometimes be difficult to ask people for money, and you must meet a minimum fundraising amount of $2,300 in order to participate in the 3-Day walk. But rather than asking friends, family, and coworkers to contribute extra to get you there, try to find a sponsor. Talk to local businesses you frequent, and ask if they’re willing to donate money toward your travel expenses. Offer them something in return, such as wearing a T-shirt with their business name on it at the event. You can also talk to local radio and TV stations about interviewing you, and mention your sponsor business on the air.

Look For Travel Deals

Most of the online travel sites usually offer deals on airfare for holidays and other events throughout the year. But if the 3-Day walk you want to participate in is taking place outside those time frames, it can be difficult to find affordable fares. The best solution in this case is to find an online discount code. For example, a Travelocity promo code or Orbitz promo codes can save you specific dollar amounts or percentages off your airfare to the walk location. Be sure to do a little searching before you give up on attending because of budget constraints.

Save Up

Walking 60 miles over three days is quite a challenge for anyone, even those in the best of shape. You need time to train before taking on the 3-Day, so if you’re not quite ready either financially or physically, start planning for 2012 now.

Next year, the walk will again be held in 14 U.S. cities starting in July, from Boston to San Francisco, Chicago to Dallas/Fort Worth. Choose the city where you want to participate now, and start saving money to cover your travel expenses. This will also give you plenty of time to work up to being able to walk 20 miles a day, not to mention more time to raise money for the event, and get well beyond the minimum required. Saving and waiting can be challenging themselves, but you’ll gain a much greater sense of satisfaction if you’re able to finish the event without injury, and if you’re able to raise more money for such an important cause.

Everyone’s lives are touched by cancer at some point. It may be a family member, a close friend, a coworker, or a friend of a friend. It may even be you. Consider doing something to support finding a cure, whether it’s the 3-Day walk, or any local event near you.

Hello fellow bloggers of GladRags! I’m a US Peace Corps Public Health Volunteer serving in the Nyanza Province of Kenya. My home is a small village on the Kisii-Kisumu road called Mikai. After two months of in-country training I was partnered with a small community based organization called Kakelo Based Integrated Support Project. We focus on supporting those community members affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including those living positive, widows, orphans, and caretakers of these people. I love working with my organization, and feel blessed everyday that I’ve been given this wonderful opportunity.

Upon arriving at my site 9 months ago I was questioned by members with an urgent need for our girls to stay in school. We immediately identified the main reasons why girls drop out of school, menstruation being one and early pregnancy being another, and set forth to correct it. We found that girls miss an average of five days of school per month due to menstruation, and early pregnancy is a shocking epidemic.

The Female Hygiene program consists of teaching each in-school girl at menstruation age in our Kakelo Location how to easily and cheaply make her own re-useable sanitary pads using locally available materials. We will also supplement each activity with correct information about how to track menstruation, what is physically happening to a woman’s body during puberty, and healthy sexual education. The sustainable and most important aspect of this project is I’ll be working with female community health workers who will help me develop the educational aspect and insure the continuance of the program well after my service is over.

The project has recently received all the donations needed to start, which is a wonderful surprise for everyone at my organization! Our next step is to buy the materials and I’ll start teaching the women I’m working with how to make the pads. We’ll then develop the education program together and start visiting schools one at a time, with groups of 10 girls at a time. Even though the project has been fully funded we still want the word to get out that hundreds of thousands of girls don’t have the proper hygiene and sexual health education to keep themselves safe from early pregnancy and continue their education. We want to thank GladRags and the readers of this blog for listening to our story. I’ll be sending updates as the project starts to keep everyone informed, so please stay tuned!

Asanteni sana tena,

Helen McGuirk

Blog: http://mcguirkhelen.blogspot.com/

Web Album: https://picasaweb.google.com/mcguirkhelen/Kenya#

Want to help other women in Africa gain access to reusable pads? Click here to learn how you can donate GladRags to women and girls in Uganda!

Our recent post of a customer’s letter about her TSA pat down has gone completely viral. Most of the comments and repostings have been positive and brought further insights or experience to the issue. Our always eloquent buddies over at LunaPads had a great post and you can read it here.

However, a few commenters and blogs have taken issue because we didn’t post the airport and the identify of the letter writer. The thinking is that perhaps it is just a marketing ploy on our part. While that might be clever, it would be devious, and not really our style. Sure, we hope to spread the word about our products – that is why we have a blog.

We checked with our customer to get her permission before we posted her letter and we trust that she had the experience she related. She has witnesses in her fellow travelers and she did tell us the airport and her destination city. She has nothing to gain from sharing her experience except knowing she might prevent the same experience for other women. Only after I called her today did she learn that her story had gone viral.

So it was not a marketing ploy, but yes, we do want something  – we want women (and men) to be able to travel without their personal privacy being invaded because they are menstruating, or think they might start their period on the plane, or because they are incontinent and like the security of a pantyliner.

Anyone wanting further information about the validity of our post can contact us at info@gladrags.com.  We always welcome your comments and feedback.

Thank you to everyone who donated GladRags pads to Haitian women earlier this year!  Midwife Jennifer S. shared the email and photo below with us about her work with Midwives for Haiti.  Jennifer, we applaud your generous spirit!  Thank you for making this possible.

I just got back late last night from Haiti and as you can imagine I had an amazing trip with Midwives for Haiti.  They work mostly out of the central plateau in Hinche.  Midwives for Haiti’s main goal is educating midwife auxillaries (notch above trained birthing assistants) to serve the women of Haiti.  The current class – class 3 – was just getting ready to graduate.  My job was to be a support for them, and to help keep the midwifery services going while they had off preparing for graduation.  There were a lot of mobile prenatal clinics that I attended at first as I got my feet wet.  We saw 45-60 women at each clinic.  For almost half the women, it was their one and only prenatal visit their entire pregnancy.  Most women deliver at home, most unattended (thus the need for the midwives) so the “new mommies” packets I made with many of the supplies you donated were very very much appreciated — diapers, soap, diaper pins, baby blankets, cloth menstrual pads — all precious items to these very poor families.  Thank you so much.  We also treated everyone for malaria and worms as well as anemia and passed out lots of prenatal vitamins — all purchased with funds many of you assisted me with — I thank you again.

This was my first time in Haiti and it was amazing.  I also ended up doing a lot of public health education about cholera out in the villages and worked a lot of nights in the cholera tents in Hinche.  It got a bit scary with the riots the beginning of this week, but I was working along with JP/HRO and PIH two very well funded and well supported organizations and was kept safe while we continued to provide care.  I also volunteered at the Azili in Hinche — this is an asylum run by Mother Teresa’s nuns — I was with the very ill children — starving, TB, etc — just holding them and helping with feedings — it was very moving.  I was in L&D, caught a baby, helped with a 16wk loss in the cholera tents and a woman who had an eclamptic seizure, met the midwife grads and many many more experiences.

As you can see I was really busy and now I am exhausted and trying to get back into the swing of things at the birth center, feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I think you all so very much for your love and support and prayers.  Having this opportunity to work in Haiti was something I have always wanted to do and now I will never forget.  I thank you for all the women we helped this last two weeks.

Yesterday we received a letter from a customer who wore her GladRags Pantyliner through a security scanner and was so traumatized by her resulting TSA genital search that she wanted to warn other women. (Read her letter below). Her past history of sexual assault made this experience a nightmare for her. At first we thought yes, we will warn people not to put themselves through this risk.

But on second thought, we want to ask every willing woman, menstruating or not, to put a GladRags in her pants and go through the scanner.  Let the TSA learn to recognize that a menstruating woman is probably not a terrorist! (And, yes, we know myriad jokes can be made be about that statement).

The fact of the matter is, everyone is subject to an invasive search. For some women and men it causes great stress and perceived violation. If you can handle the experience fairly stress free, help clear the way for our menstruating sisters for whom a genital search by a group of strangers is a truly traumatizing experience.

So get your GladRags on and get to grandma's house! Over the river and thru the scannners!  

"This email isn't going to be as polished as I would normally send, but I'm upset and I don't want what happened to me to happen to anyone else (if I can stop it). I recently traveled via air, and was subjected to that new scanning device. "No problem," I thought. I was wearing jeans and a linen tanktop, bra, panties, and one camoflauge pantyliner. I'm a rule follower, so I never have any problems at the airport. Not this time. I was stopped, and then held for 15 mintues while they tried to find a female supervisor. I couldn't get to my bag, my shawl or my shoes; just standing there while the TSA agents kept me in one place. Now, I don't want this to be about bad TSA agents; they were doing their job, they were as delicate as they could be, etc., etc. But what ultimately happened is that I was subjected to search so invasive that I was left crying and dealing with memories that I thought had been dealt with years ago of prior sexual assualts. Why? Because of my flannel panty-liner. These new scans are so horrible that if you are wearing something unusual (like a piece of cloth on your panties) then you will be subjected to a search where a woman repeatedly has to check your "groin" while another woman watches on (two in my case – they were training in a new girl – awesome). So please, please, tell the ladies not to wear their liners at the airport (I didn't even have an insert in). I'm a strong, confident woman; I'm an Army vet (which is why those camo liners crack me up), I work full-time and go to graduate school full-time, I have a wonderful husband, and I don't take any nonsense from anyone. I don't dramatize, and I don't exaggerate. I'm trying to give you a sense of who I am so you won't think that this is a plea for attention, or a jumping on the bandwagon about the recent TSA proposed boycott. I just don't want another woman to have to go through the "patting down" because she didn't know that her glad-rag would be a matter of national security."

For most of us, when a pregnant woman goes into labor, it’s a joyous event for her friends and family.  We take it for granted that childbirth is safe; that not only will we have a new baby in our lives but that the mother will still be there tomorrow to take care of it.

In Haiti, a country recently ravaged by natural disasters, it’s a different story.  Due to a lack of prenatal care and the fact that the majority of deliveries are done by untrained individuals, Haiti has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the western hemisphere.

That’s where Midwives for Haiti comes in.  Started by certified nurse-midwives, they “believe every woman in this world deserves the knowledge and care to have a safe pregnancy and birth.”  By providing training and resources to wome

n in the community, Midwives for Haiti hopes to improve access to skilled care for pregnant women and ensure that more mothers and babies survive.

Now, Midwives in Haiti is asking for your help.  Already limited supplies have become even more scarce since January’s earthquake, and women must use old rags (if anything) to collect postpartum bleeding.  Certified nurse midwife Jennifer S., who is traveling to Haiti in November, is assembling kits for new mothers that will include cloth diapers, a blanket, soap, a onesie for the baby, and cloth menstrual pads.  Please help her reach her goal of bringing 50 cloth pads with her to these women in need by donating today!

Want to learn more?  Read these two amazing stories by volunteer midwives:

• An American Midwife in Haiti

• Birth by headlamp in Hinche, Haiti

• Just in case you’d forgotten why you love your GladRags (or need a link to pass on to a friend!), Green Upgrader has a great post called “Reusable Menstrual Products Help You Reduce Waste, Save Money.”

• MSNBC shared a brief but intriguing article about the effect of having brothers on a woman’s reproductive development.

• Ever wonder why your digestive system seems to get a little wonky around your peroid?  Dr. Sugar explains it all for you in this Q & A post.

• Ashley reviews cloth pads and the Instead cup, and rates them according to comfort and effectiveness.  Find out which method she likes best at Domestic Chaos!

• We recently learned about the Sierra Club’s Beyond Oil House Parties from a GladRags user who hosted one at her home in Minnesota and contacted us for materials and coupons to share with her guests.  Stacy wrote, “This event is fun learning opportunity to inspire simple and eco-friendly lifestyle changes that will make a difference for our Earth.”  And of course, using GladRags is one of those easy changes that can help reduce our dependence on oil!  Check out Stacy’s pictures from her party (below) and let us know if you host an event of your own.