Menstrual products
Help indigenous girls and women close the gender gap.
With your help we can provide period supplies for one month for:
10CHF
1 woman
30CHF
3 women
100CHF
10 women
Choose amount
Girls and women in La Guajira can’t afford period products. They are simply not available in their rural communities or these supplies are too expensive to buy. Lacking proper sanitary supplies, indigenous women may use old rags, cartons or newspapers instead. Using non proper menstrual material can lead to infections and urogenital diseases.
The conflict
Not having proper menstrual products affects girls’ probability to finish school due to menstrual flow and odor. At the same time, women will potentially miss work, having significant economic implications. Period poverty creates a society where females have more problems to overcome than males, widening the gender gap even further.
Our work
Menstrual products must be acceptable and suitable to the people who use them. Therefore, Mama Tierra sources accessible organic disposable sanitary towels for indigenous girls and women. Reusable menstrual supplies are at the moment no option for our communities, since clean water is not available in the rural areas Mama Tierra operates.
Sanitary pads could take up to 800 years to decompose as the plastic used is non-biodegradable. Given that there is no trash collection service in La Guajira, sanitary pads either accumulate in the ravines or are burned, emitting toxic fumes in the process. Neither of these options are viable, as both contribute to environmental pollution. Therefore, plastic based menstrual supplies are no alternative for the Wayuu women to manage their period.
This project will give girls and women access to menstrual supplies, attending UN’s Sustainable Development Goals #5 and #10.
Location
Uribia, La Guajira, Colombia
Population
194,450
Area
8,200 km2
92%
Poverty Rate
39.7%
Extreme poverty with less than30 USD a month
67%
Women led households
