Provide sanitary napkins for 200,000 Indian women

Summary

Poor women use the dirtiest rag in the house during menses. Most don’t even have enough cloth to cover themselves. We provide clean sanitary napkins made of repurposed waste cloth (from the cities). progress report read updates from the field

More Information About this Project

Project Needs and Beneficiaries

Women commonly use all kinds of rags as sanitary napkins. Menses is one of the most taboo subjects in India. There is a strong relationship between practices during menstruation and the prevalence of reproductive tract infections. In many parts of India women don’t even have enough cloth to cover their body. In villages of Bihar, women don't use anything during menses don’t take a bath for days because there is nothing to change into.

Activities

- Organizing collection and awareness camps to educate people and to collect cloth for making napkins. - Production of napkins from waste cloth collected from the cities - Organising village level meetings and discussions to spread more awareness

Funding Information

This project has been retired and is no longer accepting donations.

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).

Resources

Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

GOONJ is making these women self sufficient, removing their dependence on commercial products. In cities, discussion and debate on is helping mainstream the issue, leading to more people taking up this work & benefiting more women.

Project Message

For millions of women, who don’t even have enough cloth to cover themselves, menses is monthly disaster. It’s not enough to tell them about health & hygiene until we give them a physical alternative.
- Anshu K. Gupta, Founder Director

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Anshu Gupta,
Founder-Director, GOONJ
J-93, Sarita Vihar
NEW DELHI, New Dehi 110076
India
011-2697 2351
Email:

Project Sponsor

Ashoka Innovators for the Public

Organisation

GOONJ
J- 93
Sarita Vihar, New Delhi 110044
India
2697 2351
http://www.goonj.info

Learn more about GOONJ and the project team.

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in India and can also be found under Health.

For more information about India, read the Human Development Report on India or the Wikipedia entry for India.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on July 23, 2010.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on November 28, 2006.

Latest Update from the Field

Update from GOONJ

By Meenakshi Gupta - Founder Member, October 16, 2008 01:23 PM

GOONJ is working actively in distributing the clean cloth sanitary napkins to the most marginalised women in the far flung villages of India. One of the focus areas†right now are the women†victims of the recent disastorus floods in Bihar where millions of people have been displaced from their homes. GOONJ's cloth sanitary napkin initiative is addressing a very widely needed and ignored requirement. We are tapping different health camps, vans and the women health worker network in the area to reach deep inside the villages. GOONJ ladies undergarments are also being given as an integral part of the napkin programme.

A beneficiary from an urban slum shares how she was even using pieces of rugs and even plastic, in the absence of adequate clean cloth. Since she started getting Goonj cloth napkins those days of menses were much more comfortable and there was no fear of catching any disease, as well.

Thanks for your support of this project and for helping these women.

Read 3 more "Updates from the Field" | Comment on this update

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