August 2020: 3 volunteers
December 2020: 100 volunteers, 2,212 pads helping 553 refugees.
April 2021: 665 volunteers, 10,607 pads, helping 2,651 refugees
A fantastic write-up of the project on the BBC news website in January generated international media attention and global interest. Volunteer numbers doubled in
two weeks and our “ambition” to expand into other countries has been fast-forwarded.
Italy:
We now have an Italian Pachamama ambassador, Alessia, developing a volunteer network in Italy. We will be looking into establishing partners on the ground to supply the large refugee population in Italy, once we have enough pads.
US:
In the US, we are partnering with Food Justice DMV to support Latin American refugees in the US. We have a US Pachamama ambassador, Joy, in Florida who will take delivery of US-made pads, do the checking and distributing. Sophie, who works for The Harbour Project, our partner in Swindon, has taken on the role of Project Manager of the US volunteer base.
Elsewhere:
Volunteers in France, Spain, Germany and Belgium are also making pads. The enthusiasm of would-be volunteers’ determination to be part of the project, even in countries where we cannot yet support them with fabric, has been overwhelming.
Lebanon update:
Farah, Wing Woman Pacha club
The amazing Melie at Wing Woman in Beirut has kick-started the Beirut Pacha Club. These refugee women are using our pattern and the fabric and tools we sent over via the Free-Shop container at the end of last year to make pads to sell to groups that will then donate them to refugees and women in need. Wing Woman is a project empowering women from vulnerable communities through skills and employment and this is a perfect fit for Pachamama. We will also be sending pads from here to ensure they can grow their business faster
and help more refugees sooner. We love this – Melie’s report from the first Pacha Club session was that the
ladies didn’t want to leave.
Meanwhile, we are waiting for a date from the The Free Shop Lebanon in the Bekaa Valley so that we can send a substantial number of Pacha Pads to them. The Free Shop provides the dignity of a shopping experience where refugees and vulnerable Lebanese can choose what they need, using free tokens they are given in advance. We sent Pacha Pads and a huge collection of clothes and shoes that we collected from our lovely local Essex community at the end of last year. When the shop re-opens, a nurse will be distributing the Pacha Pads and delivering menstrual health education at the same time. The women we are supporting in Lebanon have access to washing machines and the unstoppable Alice, who set up The Free Shop Lebanon, has supplied a few tumble driers in the Bekaa Valley to make the pads even more usable to a community where periods are taboo and sanitary products need to be discreet.
Greece update:
Athens:
Ella is in Greece! After a stressful week of paperwork, Covid tests and packing, Ella is in Greece along with a 23kg bag allowance of Pacha Pads. Ella will quarantine for seven days in Athens before flying onto Lesvos.
Brittany, Refugym and Ella
Back in December, we were contacted by Brittany who works for Refugym in Athens, asking if she could have some Pacha Pads for the community she works with. Refugym is a charity that usually provides a space for refugees to organise their own sports and fitness but they have been supporting the community in other ways during the pandemic. The pads are being tried in different settings: in apartments with washing machines, in tents with access to washing machines and in shipping containers where they have their own sinks and running water (but no machines). Ella is meeting Brittany in Athens after quarantine to give her enough pads for another 40 women and to discuss how we can work together.
Lesvos:
The Azadi Project mental health program
Ella has been working remotely for The Azadi Project as Project Manager for the mental health programme that is supporting groups of refugee women from the Moria 2.0 camp. She will be continuing this work on the ground in Mytilini Lesvos. She will also be working to set up a reliable distribution programme on the ground for Pachamama and to identify women living in conditions that support the practical and safe use of the Pacha Pads. Ella has taken enough pads for an initial 100 women in Lesvos. Credit: The Azadi Project
Supplying pads in the UK
We have partnered with Sophie who works for The Harbour Project in Swindon to supply pads to refugees in the local community and to support them to create a Pacha Club to make pads as well. We have a large group of volunteers in Bristol and have a Pachamama ambassador there, Elva, who does a great job providing a collection point and quality control and where we can send fabric to be supplied to volunteers there. Pads made in Bristol will be collected by Sophie and distributed to the Swindon refugee community. It’s great to be able to supply “locally” and keep our carbon footprint as small as possible.
The Pachamama Community
Our community of volunteers is so fantastic. Some of our Pachamamas have already “met” virtually and the Facebook group is lively, supportive and so helpful – full of encouragement, sewing tips and love for the project – more than we could have hoped for.
Helen, Pachamama of the month!
We have had messages from volunteers saying there are conversations about periods taking place at home with teenage boys (big tick!), there is huge support from husbands and partners with sewing, cutting, Kam Snapping and making fancy wooden templates, volunteers telling us how the project has helped them personally feel useful and valued, and, most importantly, everyone expressing empathy for the refugees and the plight of women and girls coping with period poverty in the most desperate of situations.
We have also been supported by The Pachamama Project HQ’s local community – we put out a call for fabric and the neighbourhood delivered – bringing bags and bags and bags of suitable bed linen, curtains and usable fabric that we can send out to volunteers unable to source their own material.
The huge enthusiasm from volunteer sewers outside the UK, determined to join the effort, has also been overwhelming.
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. We also showcase the weekly unboxing on social media and ensure that every volunteer’s work is included – though there are now too many for us to display every pad and bag.
Otherwise, please email us whenever you have any questions. We do, for example, have an “alternative” pattern for volunteers whose machines are struggling with the original one. Let us know if you’d like us to email it to you with both written and video instructions.
On a housekeeping note, please do include a note with your parcels. Sometimes we get boxes arrive and we don’t know who to thank. Also, we aim to thank everyone in the week that the parcel arrives, so if you haven’t heard from us within seven days, it’s possible we’re late with the unboxing, but please get in touch to check your parcel arrived. If your note could include the numbers of pads and bags, that would also help, now that we get an average of 1,000/week through the door!!
Fundraising
We started 2021 with £3211
With donations from Easyfundraising, Smoothie London, Star Bristol, Bristol Intersectional Feminist Society and donations via GoFundMe following the January media coverage, we have now raised a total of £7000
This means that we have already reached our objective to raise the minimum £5,000 required to become a registered charity. Doing the necessary admin is on the to-do list and we hope to be able to announce this development in the next newsletter – although opening a bank account for a not-for-profit during a pandemic turns out to be a major challenge!
Once we are a charity, we will be applying for grants and funding so that we can look into providing soap and underwear with every bag of pads and to supplying Zorb to volunteers – the ultra-absorbent fabric that commercial pads are made from. Some of our volunteers already use this and fund it themselves which is so generous, but it is expensive.
Currently, all the funds we have raised are being used for mailing/postage, storage boxes, wholesale fleece and Kam Snaps.
Spreading the word
We have posted links to most of our recent media coverage on the website here. All our updates are posted regularly on our social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, all @ThePachaProject. Please follow and share. We have also presented to schools and colleges, and participated in podcasts and webinars.
What next?
We have already met some of our objectives ahead of time, including supporting volunteers abroad. We still have the Girl Guide Pachamama badge in our sights and a mission to get more schools running Pacha Clubs and Duke of Edinburgh students using us for their volunteering or new skill requirements. Any help from anyone with the right connections would be gratefully accepted!
Ciara, Pachamama volunteer
Every time we set an objective, another opportunity comes our way. We will grow as fast as we can with the resources, in terms of time, volunteer base and funds, that we have.
A message from the Pachamama team
This project has highlighted so much kindness and support in a time of anxiety and isolation for many: support among the Pachamamas (and Pachapapas!), support for the project, and support and empathy for the people we are working to help. One of our US supporters sent us this quote and we think it sums up The Pachamama Project perfectly:
“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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