That is not the case in many other parts of the world. In India for example many women are simply unaware of how to handle menstruation. Even if they know that it is healthier to use a tampon or pad the expense is often more than they can afford. Recent research shows that 88 percent of women in India use newspapers, bits of cloth, dried leaves, or even ashes during their period instead of pads or tampons.

These unhygienic practices lead to negative education and health outcomes for women.  A study performed by AC Neilson called “Sanitary Protection: Every Woman’s Health Right” found that adolescent girls miss an average of 5 days of school month because of their periods. 23% of girls drop out of school after they start menstruating. The lack of access to sanitary napkins has also resulted in more than 70 percent of Indian women contracting reproductive tract infections, which increases the risk of certain cancers.

Realizing that the absence of something as basic as a sanitary pad is simultaneously causing girls to drop out of school and giving them health problems that lead to cancer, FXB International began a program in a region of India that not only makes sanitary napkins available to most women, but gives many women in the area jobs. FXB’s India team taught some of the most impoverished women in the community how to make the pads, and they began sharing them with the rest of the women in their communities. Because the sanitary napkins are produced locally prices can be kept at an amount that women in the village can afford. Now girls no longer have to worry about missing school 50 days a year, women are healthier, and the women who make the pads have a steady stream of income and can provide for their families.

The French version of ELLE Magazine just published a piece on the sanitary napkin micro-enterprise run by FXB India Suraksha. To read the whole article (translated from French to English) click here.