Last week at Putney high school, the wonderful Ella Lambert gave an inspiring talk on period poverty, and the way she has helped those experiencing it. Period poverty is the lack of access to sanitary products due to financial constraints. The effects of period poverty on women are detrimental, hindering them from managing the most intimate, and in some cases most regular occurrences in their lives. Ella’s desire to make a positive change, and help the women experiencing this, began in the first lockdown.

 

Ella originally had plans to help refugees in Columbia. However, the emplacement of the first lockdown obstructed her from doing so. With all the free time the lockdown provided her with, she began to come up with innovative ways she could help the refugees from her very own home. Ella was aware that many of these female refugees were combatting period poverty and being a girl who already experienced severe period pain, she was determined to help those going through the same thing. This is when an idea struck her. She knew the issue was that these refugees had limited or no access to sanitary products, and that the products were one-use only. She took a crash course in a how to use a sewing machine and hit the first milestone of her project, when she made her first reusable pad.

 

This very first reusable pad, was the beginning of Ella’s remarkable ‘Pachamama Project.’ It started off with just three volunteers, Ella, her mum, and her best friend Oliwia Geisler. They sat at Ella’s kitchen table, relentlessly making pads and sending them out in small batches to refugees in need. The project began to thrive after she requested for her local community - including schools and churches - to send any spare scraps of fabric. As a result, thousands of fabrics were sent to her home, as well as several keen individuals wanting to learn how to make the Pacha pad. It then went from three to a thousand people making these pads, in less than a year.

 

In December 2021, the project helped 3,000 refugees out of period poverty. 30,000 pads had been sent to refugees in countries including, Syria, Greece and Lebanon, a number that is ever growing. The project also opened Pacha clubs in Greece and Lebanon, giving refugee women the opportunity to make pads and sell them to NGOs, so that they could earn an income, improving their quality of life. In July this year, 16,000 pacha pads made up into 20,000 kits of eight, arrived in Poland. These pads were sent to hospitals in eastern Ukraine, amidst their current war, which radically increased period poverty. This was achieved in just 3 months!

 

The Pachamama project also sends in children’s clothes, shoes, toys, knitted blankets and any other essentials to help aid these refugees. The project has had a monumental impact on the lives of women who suffer from period poverty, making it such a special one as it has made its positive change to the world, with the joint effort of global volunteers.

 

 

It is now up to us to help the project grow even further. This calls for students to start their own Pacha clubs at school. Not only would this spread awareness on period poverty but also teach the student body how to make pacha pads, for them to be sent into the project. Other ways to get involved is by donating to the Pachamama projects ‘Go Fund Me’ found on their website. With a joint effort we can all help end period poverty and improve the lives of women who need it.