In the villages surrounding Pardada Pardadi, most women do not have access (or money) for sanitary pads. As a result, these women use rags, risking vaginal and urinary tract infections (and thus illness, incontinence, and infertility) during every period from puberty to menopause. Rags to Pads is a project designed to provide low-cost sanitary pads to students and female staff as well as create employment opportunities for women in a region that has almost none.
Through individual donations, Pardada Pardadi raised $5,000 to purchase a machine and supplies to manufacture pads, as well as train five girls on how to use the machine. As of February 2009, the machine was up and running, and the first batch of pads was sold. Pardada Pardadi will use the proceeds to continue to manufacture additional pads.
We will continue to provide updates as this new project develops.
Below is a brief video describing Rags to Pads:
This is the picture on each package of pads:
Laadli translated into English means "most loving and pampered". The sanitary napkins are manufactured by a team of 4 diligent and
smart girl graduates of PPES.
The colors are synonymous with the uniform that every PPES girl wears to school. Why Yellow and Green? Sam, PPES founder,
says that seeds when sown develop into green plants, and then turn yellow when ripe. Drawing from that analogy, PPES girls
come as little ones and graduate as empowered ones.
The girl riding the bicycle knows where she is heading. A world free from gender inequality and one where she has the freedom to pursue her dreams.
We were recently featured on NPR! Rural Indian School Profits Off Another Kind Of I-Pad
"When Sam Singh walked into his ancestral village, three and half hours outside Delhi, declaring he was going to build a school for girls, noone believed him. There were few educational opportunities for women in the rural community that his family was from." Read or listen the whole article >>
We were recently featured on NPR!
