THE PACHAMAMA PROJECT IN NUMBERS
August 2020
Volunteers: 3
October 2021
Volunteers: 1,030
Pacha Pads made: 29,009
Pacha Pads sent out to date: more than 21,000 supporting 2,219 women and girls dealing with period poverty
Distribution partners: 11 (in Athens, Lesbos, Beirut, Bekaa Valley, Turkey, Syria, Swindon, Watford, Washington DC
Supporting refugees in six countries (Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, UK, US)
Pachamama ambassadors in three countries (UK, US, Italy)
NEWS
Lots more orders and new partners since our last newsletter – we’re gonna need a bigger boat!
It’s going to be a very busy autumn – We have new orders and new partners. We’re working on more translations for the infographics, more outreach to spread the word and increase our volunteer base, fundraising and charity paperwork! Stocks are now low so please help spread the word (see below for how you can help).
Afghanistan
In August, we witnessed the devastating situation of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the terrible plight of Afghan nationals who worked with the international community and the fear for the future of the country’s women and girls. Many of us want to help and don’t know how.
In her role as Project Manager for The Azadi Project in Lesbos, Ella worked with many women refugees from Afghanistan, making the crisis feel very close to home. In a personal capacity, Ella is looking to fundraise for her Afghan friend and former colleague Sedighe, a refugee in Lesbos, whose mother in Herat, Afghanistan, is buying basic food supplies to give to 15-20 families in her local area who do not have any food to eat. Anyone wanting more information should contact Ella at feeding.families@outlook.com.
Pacha Pads arrive in Lebanon
On 27 September, we had news that the container from the UK had finally been cleared in Beirut and our Pacha Pads, donations and fabric are now in the hands of the FreeShop team and WingWoman. WingWoman is a group of refugee women who are paid to have a stand at festivals to distribute our Pacha Pads and the ones they make to NGOs who then give them to the refugees they work with.
Great feedback from early trial
We finally received feedback from the original trial we ran via the FreeShop with pads sent in October 2020. The considerable delay was due to the pandemic. These were the first pads we made and not as robust or absorbent as the ones we now supply. Nonetheless, we are delighted that 80% found them comfortable and said they were a long-term solution and 85% would recommend them. We have responded to feedback that more pads were needed by now providing eight pads per bag.
COUNTRY UPDATES
For an indication of which nationalities we are supporting, our infographics, that include information on menstrual health and that explain how to use our Pacha Pads, are now available in:
Arabic
Yoruba
French
Albanian
Farsi
Russian
Kurdish (Sorani and Kurmanji)
Turkish
Spanish
English
Italy:
Our Italian Pachamama ambassador Alessia has been joined by Mariana who describes herself as an aspiring Pachamama helper! Together, they are working to fundraise in Italy for materials for making Pacha Pads and to build the volunteer base. We welcome Mariana to the team. This is what she told us when she first contacted Pachamama:
“I live in Genoa, a small town very close to Ventimiglia, in the Italy/France border, a place of passage and long or less long stay of hundreds of refugees who try to cross the border in disastrous conditions, mostly crossing the alpine mountains. In my city, there are also numerous arrivals of refugees who have managed to cross the Mediterranean and find themselves in Italy looking for a place to stay. The first arrivals from Afghanistan have already begun.”
Working with Alessia and Mariana, it will be easier to find the right partners to support the refugee community in Italy.
According to the International rescue committee, Italy receives the majority of refugees and asylum seekers who reach Europe. An estimated 192,000 people have sought asylum in Italy since 2017.
USA:
We continue to work in the US with Food Justice DMV in Washington DC.
Our Pachamama Ambassador is Joy. Joy is based in Florida and provides a valuable collection and feedback service for us in the US.
The MadamSew blog launched a competition back in June for US sewers to make Pacha Pads. This kind of support is amazing – not only for making pads (nearly 1,000!), but also for spreading the word. This has generated new long-term volunteers who took part and also new volunteers who missed the MadamSew deadline and want to be involved. Huge thanks to An Kesenne who found us and wrote the blog.
LEBANON
The Bekaa Valley:
With the news just in of the arrival of our last shipment, nearly 8,000 more Pacha Pads have started their journey from the UK to Lebanon to the FreeShop Lebanon via the collection point in Coventry - another distribution managed by Distributeaid. We also sent enough bedding, children’s clothing, shoes and ladies’ underwear, donated by Pachamama volunteers and the HQ’s local community to fill two pallets. The FreeShop’s Alice posts regular brilliant updates on Instagram @freeshoplebanon for anyone interested in how the shop runs and who it helps.
A special shout out to our Essex Pachamamas, Helen and Ruth who helped sort and pack all the donations and to Heidi and Matt, Ella's parents who gave up their house to donations, collected, sorted, packed and drove the donations to Coventry and volunteered all day helping DistributeAid with the rest of the donations!
Next aid shipment off to Lebanon end of October
We will be sending another consignment of both aid and pads towards the end of October. Aid includes good-as-new babies’ and children’s clothes (0-19 years), blankets, soft toys, crayons, nappies, bottles, hats, scarves and gloves for all ages, shoes for all ages, socks for all ages, bras and new underwear for all ages. Anyone who has anything they’d like to contribute, please send to Pachamama HQ: 104 Vicarage Lane, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, CM2 8JD and we’ll take any donations to the collection point with the next Pacha Pad order.
New partner in the Bekaa Valley
This next consignment for Lebanon will include extra Pacha Pads for another NGO in the same area, The Health Impact which provides health education to refugees and vulnerable Lebanese living in the settlements. The Pacha Pads will be distributed along with menstrual health education delivered by medics.
GREECE:
The Pachamama team is never truly off-duty: when on holiday in Kefalonia this August, our Airbnb host, Mitsi, turned out to work as an interpreter for an
organisation supporting refugees in Athens! Ella’s parents had brought 35 Pacha kits in the holiday packing and we gave them to Mitsi, who took them back to her boss. Mitsi is now on a mission to introduce Ella to other refugee organisations in Athens.
Lesbos:
Ella has started a Pacha Club, working with just one refugee lady initially, to make Pacha Pads and sell them locally on a donation for donation basis. One Happy Family Women's Space has provided free space and the use of a sewing machine. We have already had a few orders worth about £50. If we can get this up and running, this could really help a small number of women on the island, providing a little income and an enjoyable few hours a week in a safe, welcoming space.
Our Pacha Pads are not suitable for use in the camps due to a lack of laundry facilities, but we are working with our friend, Sedighe and the organisation Operazione Colomba, to provide our kits to women living out of camp. We have given the pads to 65 women living in Mytilini so far and are sending out a shipment for 40 more families.
Athens:
Ella is planning a trip to Athens to find fabric shops so she can stock the Lesbos Pacha club and find a way to keep it supplied once she leaves at the end of the year. She will also meet up with Mitsi and other potential partners in the city.
The UK:
Bristol/Swindon:
The Harbour Project in Swindon was featured in the Channel 4 documentary “Invented”. 686 Bristol-made Pacha Pads have been delivered there so far.
Bristol ambassador
Huge thanks go to Elva King who became our first Pachamama ambassador when we launched, managing the Bristol supplies and Pacha Pad collection and who delivered all the pads to The Harbour Project last month. Elva has now left Bristol, having graduated from university, and hands over to Lynn Love who reached out to us offering her services. We are delighted to welcome Lynn to the team. Bristol Pachamamas should make sure they are on the Bristol Whatsapp group or contact us by email to be connected with Lynn, if you would like to deliver pads to her rather than send them by post to HQ. Lynn is happy to be a collection point for pads and we will make supplies available to her for those who need them.
Supporting Afghan arrivals
We contacted the Refugee Council to see how we could supply women and girls arriving from Afghanistan. We were referred to the charity Goods For Good. Goods For Good sends goods donated by businesses and individuals in the UK to vulnerable communities living around the world. We sent them 100 Pacha kits and these have generated a great deal of interest. This will be a great way to support people in need in the UK and elsewhere – refugees and other vulnerable people.
FUNDRAISING
An easy way to help us raise money in a way that will cost you nothing is to sign up to easyfundraising on our behalf and do your online shopping via this link. For anyone who shops online, all you have to do is go to easyfundraising and search for the retailer you are looking to shop with. If they are on the list, you then access their site here and we will get a percentage of the value of your spend. It’s generally tiny, but it all adds up. Retailers on the list include: Hermes, Amazon, Argos, Uswitch, ebay, booking.com, John Lewis, Asos, Asda – and loads more.
Once we have charity status, we will apply for grants and funding. Our largest costs are shipping. A pallet going to Lebanon costs £200, for example.
SPREADING THE WORD
Since our last newsletter, the Channel 4 showcase has been broadcasted.
Ella has spoken or will be speaking to the following people/at the following events:
Amplify:
Breaking the Seal: Women's Issues We Aren't Talking About
The Changing Face of Activism: Creating Change From Your Bedroom.
Let’s talk period
Ella has also done a number of online presentations to schools (assemblies and groups) which is a great way to spread the word, normalise the conversation around periods and generate new volunteer interest. If you have a contact with a school, Ella would be happy to talk to them about presenting to students.
What you can do:
• post on your neighbourhood social media platforms (such as Facebook and Nextdoor) about i) fabric, if you need it, ii) volunteers
• ask your local school/college if they’d be interested in talking to us about i) talks ii) Pacha Clubs/Duke of Edinburgh volunteering
•contact your local WI about i) talks ii) volunteers
•contact local church groups who may run craft clubs
•print off the attached poster and ask your local fabric shops to display it
•if you belong to a club that fundraises for charities, please consider Pachamama!
Meanwhile, if you follow us on social media, please share our posts – it really does help.
Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @ThePachaProject
HOUSEKEEPING
Bags:
Following feedback from the ladies we supply, we are now providing EIGHT Pacha Pads per person. Therefore, we have increased the minimum bag size to 22cm x 26cm. All the bags in stock will be used.
Pacha Pads:
Our updated flying saucer templates are working brilliantly and all the pads coming through the door using these instructions have been perfect. We have updated the aeroplane for those who prefer this pattern to make it easier and to make the core slightly larger. We are calling the pattern ‘The Phoenix’ as it was created by our volunteer Susan Phoenix! Please find it in the attachments section on Facebook or drop us an email for the updated pattern if you prefer the aeroplane style.
Pacha Pad checklist:
-absorbency (minimum 20ml. You can add further layers of towel if necessary)
-robustness (the core and all the layers are secured all the way around and attached to the main body)
-size (check against the actual size in the instructions, rather than trusting your printer which may print out different dimensions)
-Wings in the middle (in the aeroplane pattern, check the wings are central on the body)
-Fabric is good as new or new (check there is no colour fade or wear. We can supply fabric from our donated stock on request. Also, please avoid using plain white/cream where possible)
-Fleece (new, dark-coloured anti-pil polar fleece for the top layer. We can supply fleece on request in the UK. Internal layer can be second-hand fleece)
PUL/Zorb
For anyone using either PUL (waterproof layer) and/or Zorb, here’s how to use them:
-Original Zorb goes in place of the towel, otherwise no change (check absorbency)
-4D PUL Zorb – in place of towel and you can leave out the second fleece layer (or keep)
-PUL only – bottom internal layer
We receive around 1000 pads per week which is unbelievable! Here are some of your wonderful creations from our Unboxings!
THE PACHAMAMA COMMUNITY
Every single day we receive new volunteer requests.
We would strongly advise everyone to join the private Pachamama Facebook Group (you don’t need to be active on Facebook but you need an account) – not only will you see the latest news on the project and tips and advice from sewers on there, but it is such a positive, supportive lovely community to be part of. Do also follow @thefreeshoplebanon on Instagram and see where many of our pads (and our clothing donations) go.
Otherwise, please email us whenever you have any questions.
WHAT NEXT?
We are working through the application process to become a charity and will hopefully have more to report in the next newsletter.
Our focus over the next few months is going to be recruiting more volunteers. We never thought this would happen, but we have more orders than we have pads so it’s time to ramp up the recruiting process. We will also be submitting our charity application and doing many more talks to help spread the word about period poverty and break down the stigma!
THANK YOU SO MUCH
We couldn’t do what we do without:
Smoothie London for their continued support in donating 10% of their profits to us and for creating a special Pachamama huggie earring. Please check out their collection – beautiful earrings at amazing prices. Amazing Christmas presents…
BB Pads – commercial reusable sanitary pads donating 10% of their profits to us
Badminton School who made a generous donation
Julian Phillips who trekked 50km through the Dubai desert to raise money for us
Rosi Skinfood - wonderful organic skincare – donating 10% from online purchases when you use the code “PACHA” at the checkout
The generous individuals who have donated via our GoFundMe page
Liz Walsh for our brilliant website
Beth Rowland for our gorgeous logo
All our amazing volunteers and their families who get involved
A MESSAGE FROM THE PACHAMAMA TEAM
Together, in just over one year, we have made and delivered more than 20,000 Pacha Pads to people in need, taking over 2,000 individuals out of period poverty for up to five years, providing a beautiful, practical gift to people who find themselves in the most challenging of situations. We are very excited to see what we can achieve next.
“Never Underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world”
Margaret Mead, US Anthropologist 1901-1978
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