90% of girls and women around the world don't have access to the feminine hygiene products we take for granted

[pnwmom]

And for up to a week every month, it makes their lives so much harder.

Some women are working to provide an alternative.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nifty-device-lets-low-income-girls-wash-dry-reusable-sanitary-pads-helps-prevent-infections_55c139f6e4b0138b0bf456a7?kvcommref=mostpopular

For girls living in low-income countries, the worst part of menstruation has nothing to do with the bloating or cramps. It's not having funds to buy pads, which means resorting to using unsanitary scraps or continuously washing rags that never get fully clean.

That injustice is what prompted a group of students at the Art Center College of Design to develop Flo, a simple and inexpensive device that allows girls to discreetly carry around their reusable sanitary pads and quickly and effectively wash them.

Across the globe, 90 percent of girls use reusable pads and rags instead of the more expensive disposable option, according to the group.

The situation is so dire in places like Kenya, for example, where a package of pads costs 60 cents –- that girls are often left using leaves, newspapers, bits of mattress stuffing or even mud as a form of protection while they’re menstruating, according to Project Humanity.

Using reusable materials often poses health risks, and forces girls to live in utter discomfort for the week, because they can’t properly clean them.

SNIP

[Sunlei]

1. USA had Federal case where woman in our prison system didn't have access to fem. hygiene products.

They made thousands of woman prisoners pay for tampons/ pads or do without, for many years.

[pnwmom]

2. Do you remember what the outcome was?

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Looks like it's still going on...

From an article this year--

http://www.oneillinstituteblog.org/why-health-should-be-the-new-orange-the-toxic-state-of-womens-prisons/

Menstruation

Chandra Bozelko spent six years at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Connecticut. In a recent article, Bozelko explains how each cell, which houses two female inmates, receives five pads per week to split, allowing for only one change a day in an average five-day monthly cycle. But even when inmates save them, with only ten per month, they can expect to wear a single pad for multiple days. Even worse are the prisons that don’t provide any free female hygiene products. Having to buy these pads at the prison commissaries ($2.63 for a 24-pack or up to $4.23 for eight tampons at a privatized commissary) proves impossible for many of the inmates earning 75 cents for a day’s work. But even when inmates have the money to buy feminine hygiene supplies, commissaries routinely understock and women are left waiting for a week or two, rendering the pads irrelevant for another month.

Last year, the ACLU of Michigan filed a lawsuit on behalf of eight female inmates alleging, “inhuman and degrading policies at the filthy, overcrowded lockup violate their constitutional rights.” One among many problems listed was the jail’s refusal to provide adequate feminine hygiene products, forcing inmates to routinely bleed through their clothes and not providing them a change of clothes until laundry day. When one inmate requested supplies, an officer told her she was “shit out of luck” and “better not bleed on the floor.”

[pnwmom]

4. Thanks. This is despicable. Obviously it is men making these decisions. n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Perhaps, but some women can be just as mean, and not all men...

hate women that much.

Or hate them more than the men they treat just as badly.

[pnwmom]

6. I think men are more likely to be clueless about how many pads or tampons

are used during a period. So it might be ignorance as much as meanness.

But it is very wrong that knowledgeable people in the system, the medical staff, for example, don't speak out about this. Using sanitary supplies for too long can lead to toxic shock syndrome and other infections.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. That's true, but the rest of the article includes talk about...

how medical problems, particularly female ones, are simply ignored.

Pregnant in jail? Good luck.

Systemic neglect, and it is despicable whatever the cause.

We treat our dogs better than our prisoners.

[pnwmom]

8. "We treat our dogs better than our prisoners." Agreed. n/t

[davidn3600]

9. Prison system is pretty bad all around

Medical is almost non-existent in male and female facilities. A lot of states and counties contract out the medical services. And they are severely under-staffed. So the medical staff don't even work for the state. They work for a private company who is only looking to maximize profit.

There are some pretty horrific stories out there about this kind of thing.

Last year Al-Jazeera did a report in Arizona...
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/5/27/whistleblower-arizonainmatesaredyingfrominadequatehealthcare.html

[pnwmom]

10. Thanks, david3600. n/t

[Mojorabbit]

11. There is a movement to reusable items

like these for several years. I hope they take off.
http://gladrags.com/

[pnwmom]

12. Good stuff. Thanks for the link!

[A Little Weird]

13. You can get them from crafty people on etsy or ebay as well

Or there are patterns out there if you sew. The reusable pads are more comfortable in my opinion. I started using them because the disposable items just seem so bad for the environment. Now I use them more than 75% of the time (usually get the disposables when traveling).

[Tree-Hugger]

14. Oh yes

Reusable pads are very popular nowadays, especially in conjunction with reusable menstrual cups. It's a huge benefit to the environment since over 1 billion pads and tampons end up in landfills each year in the good ol' USA.

That last point brings up a double-edged sword. These girls in developing countries are not getting proper menstrual care. While disposable products offer them some benefit, they also pose a large threat to the environment and health (bleach, dioxins, plastics, etc harm the environment, but there is also concern about how they affect the body). I hope there are solutions that meet in the middle to help these young women have more sanitary and comfortable periods while preserving their health and the health of their local environment.