The Pachamama Project was conceived during lockdown in July, became an official entity on 14th August, we grew our national volunteer network from 1-100 and, on Christmas Eve, we counted an incredible 2,212 pads – enough to end period poverty for 553 refugees.
More on what the project has achieved
Several hundred pads have already been sent to refugees in Lesvos, Greece and to Beirut in Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
In Lesvos, our distributor partner is The Azadi Project – a team working on the ground with the Moria 2 camp. The distribution of Pacha pads in Lesvos was made more challenging following the fire that destroyed the whole camp in September, leaving the refugees with even more limited access to water and sanitation. Pacha pads have been given to women who are housed in apartments outside the actual camp where they have access to water and washing facilities. Ella, the founder of the project is going to Lesvos to work as a volunteer with the Azadi team in July for six months, to help develop their hygiene project, including development of the partnership with The Pachamama Project, as well as working on a refugee mental health campaign.
Beirut
In October, we were contacted by Melie, a volunteer from “Wing Woman Lebanon,” an organisation providing practical and business skills to refugee women in Beirut, asking for help to set up a Pacha club in Beirut. We sent a large starter pack of fabric, towel, fleece and a kam snap kit to get them going and we are planning an online workshop to teach them how to make the pads. Melie and her team have secured donations of sewing machines and the ambition is for a refugee group to make pads that they can sell to other refugees - developing skills, solving period poverty amongst their refugee community and raising a little money whilst doing so. This could be a great template for future collaborations that would help get reusable pads to more women in need.
The Bekaa Valley
A few months ago, we were contacted by the wonderful Alice from the “The Free shop Lebanon” in the Bekaa Valley, home to 340,000 refugees. Alice is trialling the pads with a group of refugees with a view to making Pacha Pads available in the “free shop” that she has set up
over the last few months. Refugees are
given free tokens that they can exchange for clothes in the shop – but the Pacha Pads will be free, and available in a private area of the shop for women/girls only, where the refugees will be advised by a nurse on how to use and care for the pads along with information on feminine hygiene.
In October, Alice did a huge collection in the UK to fill a container for her free shop. Since we were taking the pads to Birmingham to add to the container, we took the opportunity to do a collection in our local community. Thanks to the wonderful donors in Essex, we were able to contribute 80 large sacks of good-as-new children’s clothes, coats and shoes. The container arrived in the Bekaa Valley last week and all distribution and free shopping is now underway!
The Pachamama Community
We LOVE our community of volunteers. There is huge excitement every time a delivery of pads arrives at the door, every time someone new signs up, every time someone brings fabric donations to the door. We hope that everyone involved shares our sense of community and enjoys the reward of knowing that something they made with their own hands will make such a real and direct difference to someone in need. We also hope that, between us, we are breaking down the taboo of periods and raising awareness of period poverty and of the plight of refugees.
Fundraising
The project is entirely volunteer-led and 100% of all money raised is used for distribution, admin and any materials that cannot be sourced from donations.
This year, our founding year, we went from zero to £3,211 in less than six months thanks to the efforts of many:
The 50K run raised £2,361
The Salvage Project donated £500 – everything they earned during the month of December
Smoothie jewellery donates 10% of all online purchases to us
Rosi Skinfood donates 10% of any purchase made quoting “PACHA”
Our objective is to have raised at least £5,000 by August 2021 so that we can become a registered charity. This should open more doors for funding and partnerships so that we can grow faster and help more people.
What next?
There are an estimated 26.3m refugees globally, 50% of whom are female. We can’t possibly help everyone, but our ambition is to make The Pachamama Project a national brand (although we also have a couple of volunteers in the USA!) and have a club in every university, create a Girl Guide badge, have a school in every UK region running an extra-curricular Pacha Club, establish volunteering for The Pachamama Project as a staple of the Duke of Edinburgh award and continue to grow the network of craft clubs, sewers and enthusiastic individuals everywhere.
A message from Ella and Oliwia from the Pachamama team
Thank you! Thanks to everyone who has donated materials and money, to all the runners, to the business sponsors, and to the volunteers, without whom we could not even dream of fulfilling any of this project’s objectives - and our families who have embraced The Pachamama Project and given so much support. We can’t wait to build on what we have achieved so far and to see how many of our ambitions we can tick off in 2021.
Thank you again to Elizabeth Walsh for creating and donating our website and to Beth Rowland for designing and donating our very sunny logo.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!🥰
@thepachaproject
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