The Happy Pad

The sustainable and reusable menstrual pad that aims to end period poverty.

Have you ever thought about using an old newspaper, a sock or some leaves when you had your period? Or what if someone you know had to resort to these measures - simply because they didn't have anything else available?

Sadly, Period Poverty is the reality of millions of women across the world. In São Tome the lack of availability of menstruation products is even combined with deep culturally ingrained stigma, making periods extra difficult to manage. The poor menstrual hygiene as a result, leads to health issues, alienation from social systems and the women skipping school or work. They also have to endure physical abuse. All of that making it even harder to obtain financial resources or education, creating the vicious cycle thousands of women are trapped in.

We want to break this cycle and empower the women of São Tomé to free themselves from it. How? We are going to put together kits filled with all the resources needed to sew their own pads, with instructions. Then our partner organisation Sebê Nón will distribute the pads to the girls & women there, will help them sew their first pads, all while giving classes on menstruation.

To finance this endeavour, we will offer a fully fabricated reusable Happy Pads that you can buy!

Our Happy Pads will be made from mainly scrap fabrics that are 100% cotton, so that we don't contribute to more waste but can offer you an effective and safe product nonetheless!

You can choose how many Happy Pads you want to purchase & we will offer you a free wet bag with them so that you never have to worry about where to keep them when you're on the go. They are handy, comfortable & easy to use. And we will make sure that you do not have to worry about any leaking :)

If you want to own your own Happy Pads, or simply support this project and the girls in São Tomé and Príncipe, check out the Rewards for this campaign. We are more than grateful & we can't wait to end period poverty with you!

Thank you - from Lola, Inês and Kira! And thank you from São Tomé & Príncipe!

About the author

This is the Happy Pad team: Lola, Inês and Kira

Our team is composed of three students in our last year of the Master in Management at Nova SBE in Lisbon. Lola is from Belgium, Inês from Portugal and Kira is from Germany. We are all highly passionate about solving neglected problems that our society faces.

We want to create a sustainable solution to menstrual poverty and make the world a better place for women and girls in São Tomé and elsewhere. Join us on our mission!

Budget and due dates

While this campaign is running, we are working to produce Happy Pads, making sure they reach the highest quality for you, so that once the campaign ends (hopefully) successfully, you don't have to wait long for the your blocks arrive!

At the same time, we are putting together the kits to be sent to São Tomé, so that we can begin to eradicate the poverty of the period from the beginning!

In the following months, we intend to build our website & online store, so that we can reach more women & people who menstruate around the world with our Happy Pads & in order to increase our impact in São Tomé & Príncipe.

The future is really in your hands! If you like our products, we will develop them more and more and increase our portfolio. We can face the situation in São Tomé & Príncipe more effectively & we could potentially even go further.

For now, we're just happy to get your Happy Pads to you as soon as possible & make some girls' lives a lot easier!

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