And now for something completely different...
I just saw this article on the BBC this morning, and decided I had to pass it along:
A man in India invents a machine for women to make low-cost sanitary napkins
The whole process wasn't exactly skittles and beer for him; his wife (who inspired the whole project when he learned she had to use rags) left him, as did the rest of his family, and the people in his village were convinced he was some kind of pervert and very nearly exorcised him, but things finally worked out in the end, and he's since reconciled with his wife and family. He could make a lot of money with this if he wanted to, but he feels it's more important to help provide jobs and improve hygiene for poor women, and is now looking at taking this worldwide.
You just don't realize until you read something like this just how significant having clean, easily obtained, and easily disposed-of products to deal with menstruation can be for women--in many cases, I'd say that's done as much to improve women's lives as access to birth control and education, and directly impacts the latter. When you can go to school and not have to worry about bleeding all over the place, but can concentrate on your schoolwork, or can go and fetch water from the well without the rest of the villagers knowing that you're having your period, it makes such a difference in your life and those of your family...
A man in India invents a machine for women to make low-cost sanitary napkins
The whole process wasn't exactly skittles and beer for him; his wife (who inspired the whole project when he learned she had to use rags) left him, as did the rest of his family, and the people in his village were convinced he was some kind of pervert and very nearly exorcised him, but things finally worked out in the end, and he's since reconciled with his wife and family. He could make a lot of money with this if he wanted to, but he feels it's more important to help provide jobs and improve hygiene for poor women, and is now looking at taking this worldwide.
You just don't realize until you read something like this just how significant having clean, easily obtained, and easily disposed-of products to deal with menstruation can be for women--in many cases, I'd say that's done as much to improve women's lives as access to birth control and education, and directly impacts the latter. When you can go to school and not have to worry about bleeding all over the place, but can concentrate on your schoolwork, or can go and fetch water from the well without the rest of the villagers knowing that you're having your period, it makes such a difference in your life and those of your family...