Welcome to Australia Eco Femme!

Eco Femme is a women's empowerment project which has risen from rural India and is reaching the world via the Auroville Village Action Group and the Gift a Pad Program. Kathy Walking is the Co-founder of Ecofemme-org which formed in 2009.

Kathy discovered cloth pads while visiting family in Australia. She found them more comfortable to wear and also this was so much easier than having to find a place to bury disposable pads. 

The use of disposable hygiene products is a considerable waste management issue. Provision of access to appropriate and affordable sanitary hygiene products is at the forefront of Eco Femme's work. Eco Femme is determined to counter the current trend towards disposable use in India. Currently 12% of the menstruating population in India uses disposable products. This percentage is likely to grow as multi-nationals recognize India as the largest growing market for these products and are marketing them across the country as the modern convenient solution.

"If every woman of reproductive age in India started to use disposable sanitary napkins, it is estimated that waste from 59 billion pads would be generated each year!"¹

During her life time one woman will consume ~125-150kg of sanitary products. To gauge some idea of quantities, in South Australia alone 1200-1700 tonnes of feminine hygiene waste is disposed into landfills in a single year². Disposable feminine waste is plastic laden and takes 500-800 years to degrade³.

Social Enterprise

Eco femme work in partnership with Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG); a non-governmental organization that focuses on community development. AVAG works with and trains women Self Help Groups www.villageaction.org. 24 women have been fully trained in stitching and then further trained to form their own independent enterprise. Eco Femme currently provides the equivalent of 7 full time jobs. Participants are paid fair wages on a piece by piece basis. The Eco Femme Project is a social enterprise which follows fair trade principles with its employees and tailors.

Gift a Pad Program

Gift a Pad Program Kit

Each cloth pad purchased by the International community provides a pad for a young woman in India. This initiative is targeted at adolescents of age 10-19 from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Donations are gifted as a 4 pad set during and in addition to an education program. The seminar topics cover menstrual and reproductive health, and information about the proper use and care of cloth pads. 

The Eco Femme Range

Eco Femme pads are made from cotton flannel and have unbleached cotton flannel cores. All pads are PUL lined (hidden) for leak protection, excepting non-PUL pantyliners. The range includes:

• Pantyliners (3 pack), available with PUL lining or non PUL
• Day Pad
• Day Pad Plus
• Night Pads
• Travel Packs
• Make your own stitching kits (3 pack)

Eco Femme Pads are now available for purchase here

Click the video link to learn more about Eco Femme

References:
1. http://www.indiantextilejournal.com/articles/FAdetails.asp?id=1567
2. www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au
3. http://recycling.about.com/od/Resources/fl/How-Long-Does-It-Take-Garbage-to-Decompose.htm

How to choose the right cloth pad for You

First things first - ***Congratulations*** on considering and making the switch to cloth pads! You have joined a growing number of women who find using reusables a better choice.

When you are first starting out using cloth pads it can be very confusing with the many choices out there. How do you make the right choice for you? Unfortunately the answer is there is no right choice as cloth pads are like clothing, there is not a one size fits all. Some like a favourite "brand" of cloth pads and others like to have a large variety of pads from different sellers. There are a few steps you can take in helping you choose when you are first starting out:

• Read reviews; reading reviews that have been left on the sellers site is helpful. Reviews that are written on blogs can also be informative, but please bear in mind that the blogger has often received a free or heavily discounted product, not always - but more often than not.
• Consider your budget, it is not desirable to buy an instant stash of pads - as if you find they are not what you were hoping for you have wasted your money, even if you received a bulk order discount.
• Start slowly, buying one or two pads from sellers you are interested in before committing to a large order. Wear the pads for one or two cycles to see if the fit and feel is right for you before purchasing more.
• Measure the width of your underwear and look for pads that approximate this in closed width. Typical preferred widths are anywhere between 6.5cm to 8cm, or 2.5-3.0", most wider widths tend to be on longer, or heavy flow pads. If the seller does not list the closed width of the pad, ask them what their pads closed width is. The closed width is the area in black as shown:
   

New products at Clothcycle

I have not written a blog post in so long, mainly because my new website ate my blog! Long story, not worth telling. But here I am again now rambling about my handcrafting :D

Recently I have had some fun with dyeing using procion fibre reactive dyes. I am by no means an expert but have created some beautiful (I think) works using various different techniques. I have tried ice dyeing in the past, but found it quite hard not living in a cold climate with accessible snow. I kicked myself for not taking our Eskie up to Lake Mountain the other week! So instead of ice dye I used some tye dyeing and shibori style techniques.

My site is now stocked with some of the latest creations using the beautiful hand dyed bamboo flannel. I have also made a few little wetbags, these have been sold out for some time now, simply because I have not had much time to re-stock.

32cm Cadence Bamboo Flannel Fantail

Australiana Wetbag

I am also about to launch a new Giveaway. Stay tuned... that is a little weird to say as I lost all my followers when my last blog was eaten ... time to start again! ;)