Our impact

Lebanon

76% of women, girls and people who menstruate in Lebanon experience period poverty. The price of period products has risen by 500% since 2020 making them unaffordable for the local population as well as the vast refugee population from neighbouring Syria and Palestine.

Mothers and Daughters: We run menstrual health workshops with Syrian and Palestinian refugees, as well as Lebanese teenagers and their mothers, to improve knowledge and understanding of menstruation while tackling period poverty. Our mother and daughter programme fosters a safe space for conversations that can continue at home, creating a ripple effect in communities.

Aid Container: We have been involved in sending five containers of aid to help stock The Free Shop Lebanon, where visitors have the dignity of a shopping experience — but where everything is free. Most recently, in November 2024, we sent 75,000 items of aid to support those affected by the Lebanon-Israel war.

The local population and residents of the nearby refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley can also access reusable pads via The Free Shop.

Emergency Response: During the war, we launched an emergency project. We provided disposable period products for those who were displaced in shelters. We also provided reusable pads and supplied shelters with water tanks so that people could manage their period safely.

The Pacha Bubba Project: Our latest campaign, the Pacha Bubba project is a collaboration with Jigsaw Charity to support pregnant and postpartum mothers in rural areas. Our reusable pads are provided as postpartum pads during awareness sessions on pregnancy, new born care, and breastfeeding, delivered by a qualified midwife.

Period Poverty Committee Lebanon: The Pachamama Project has brought together eight organisations in Lebanon working on period poverty to assess the needs of the region and collaborate effectively. This group was crucial in coordinating our response during the war.

Open Call for Partnerships in Lebanon: We believe collaboration is key to ending period poverty in Lebanon. That’s why we’re actively seeking new partners across the country — especially community-led organisations working in war-affected areas. If you’d like to work with us, fill out our partnership form here.

To learn more about the work we do, please see the BBC report below on our Lebanon project.

Pakistan

More than 30 million women in Pakistan experience period poverty and there is a significant knowledge gap when it comes to menstrual health. 49% of young girls have no knowledge of menstruation before starting their first period. Girls in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to period poverty and lack access to menstrual health education.

Since 2022, we have been working with the Abaseen Foundation to deliver reusable pads along with menstrual health education to school girls in rural Peshawar. Literacy rates for girls in the area are less than 3% but despite the school girls being of marriageable age, a significant number are staying in school seeing a cultural shift in attitudes towards girls’ education. We are working with Abaseen to make sure period poverty in not yet another reason for girls to miss or drop out of school.

Uganda

According to the Ministry of Education’s Performance Monitoring & Accountability Report of 2020, one in four girls between the ages of 12 and 18 drop out of school once they begin menstruating. For those who do attend, absenteeism triples from 7% to 28% during menstruation.

Period Poverty and School absenteeism: Our primary focus in Uganda is to support teenagers who are missing school as a result of period poverty. School teacher, Dick Arimumikonoye from Kigezi High School in Western Uganda, realised that many of the girls in his class were missing school because of their periods and so he purchased reusable pads for them. Word got round and he became inundated with requests from other teachers and schools in the area. Seeing a news report on Pachamama in 2023, he reached out to see if we could help. A recent trial distribution of Pacha Pads in collaboration with Kigezi High School saw 98% of students report improved attendance.

"Pachamama has allowed me to stay in school without worrying about staining my uniform." - student testimonial

Since 2022, we have been working with Pass It On Trust Uganda, a youth-led organisation promoting education for children. We have provided our Pacha Pads to women, girls and people who menstruate living in extreme poverty across Uganda, helping PIOTU to keep girls in school.

HIV clinics and Rural areas: Our latest partnership in Uganda is with Rwenzori Women for Health in Kagando, Western Uganda. It has been supporting vulnerable communities since 2012 including schools, hospitals and rural areas. We are conducting a trial and first pads have been distributed to teenagers and young adults with HIV and young mothers and young women in a rural village in the Rwenzori Hills. Upon hearing that more pads are on their way, a RWFH representative commented:

"Now we shall slowly beat girl child school dropouts."

UK

Period Poverty & the UK: Shockingly, since the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, the number of people struggling to afford period products in the UK has sky rocketed to one in five.

With this in mind, we have just launched a campaign in partnership with Global Relief Trust Code Red to tackle period poverty at home. Our trial with 150 people across Birmingham, London and Manchester is underway, with plans to roll this out nationally over the coming year to ensure no one in the UK has to choose between period products and basic essentials.

Support for UK asylum seekers and refugees: We are also working directly with asylum seekers across the UK who receive £49.18 per week and are not permitted to work, making it difficult to afford even the most basic supplies. We run a pad-making club in Chelmsford, Essex in partnership with The Art Place. Asylum seekers and locals can come together to make pads, engage in language exchange, develop a local support system and find a sense of purpose in supporting others around the globe. Members of the group are also welcome to take home their own pads.

Following the horrendous race riots that took place in the summer of 2024 which saw asylum seekers attacked and villainised, it has never been more important to make those seeking safety in our country feel welcome and supported.

Building on the success of the Chelmsford group, we have launched a second club in partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence in Lincoln. The MoD is housing and supporting Afghans who have been welcomed to the UK as part of the resettlement scheme for people (and their families) who worked alongside the military in Afghanistan.

USA

One in four teens in the US face period poverty and the migrant population is disproportionately affected.

We work with Food Justice DMV to provide underserved Latina migrants with reusable pads. The families supported by Food justice are facing more challenges than ever before, including where parents are being deported, leaving vulnerable children behind.

To make our distributions as sustainable as possible, the pads given to women, girls and people who menstruate in the United States are made by our wonderful US-based volunteers.

Greece

Our first ever distribution point was in Lesvos, Greece, where our founder lived for nine months back in 2021. Just off the coast of Turkey, Lesvos is a key entry point into Europe for refugees from the Middle East and Africa. Our pads were delivered to those in temporary accommodation and safe houses. We also ran a two-year pad-making project, to provide activities for those living in the refugee camp.

Small distributions of pads have also been distributed to refugees in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Syria

Since the overthrow of Assad at the end of 2024, we have been able to launch a menstrual health campaign for the first time in Syria. Over the coming months we will be supporting 500 women, girls and people who menstruate with menstrual health education workshops and our reusable pads.

Our first distribution of Free Shop-funded pads, went ahead in April with 150 women, girls and people who menstruate in Al Zabadani in partnership with Jigsaw Charity and Endless Medical Advantage. The pads were delivered to our menstrual health coach by our very own Alice Corrigan, Pachamama trustee and Chair of the Free Shop who has visited Syria for the first time since the war ended.

Our menstrual health coordinator, Mariam, led the sessions, providing information on reproductive health, menstrual health conditions such as PCOS, common myths, how to use and wash reusable pads, and advice for mothers on how to talk to their daughters about periods without stigma.

Our mother-and-daughter sessions are designed to break down menstrual taboos by encouraging open conversations at home. While addressing the widespread myth that showering during your period is harmful, Mariam reported that a girl nudged her mother and said:

“Listen to what the doctor is saying!”

We have seen these sessions spark ripple effects in communities across Lebanon -and we're excited to see the same impact unfold in Syria.

Ukraine

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, millions of people were suddenly displaced. As part of our emergency response, we partnered with Pads4Refugees to raise funds and sent over 30,000 disposable pads to Lviv, Poland, and Moldova — where many Ukrainians had sought safety.

While working on the Polish border, our founder connected with the Yorghas Foundation, a Polish organisation providing emergency baby kits to hospitals affected by the war. They wanted to include post-partum pads for new mothers — but, without seeing the war coming, we had just sent out all our Pacha Pads for distribution and had no stock left.

We turned to our incredible volunteer network. Within three months, they had produced 16,000 pads, which we sent to support 2,000 new mothers giving birth in hospitals across Eastern Ukraine.

Italy

Due to its geographical position above North Africa, and as a country on the European migration route, Italy receives the third largest number of refugees and asylum seekers in the EU.

We have conducted a trial with our partner, JNRC in Rome. JNRC is a day centre for refugees and asylum seekers to relax, receive advice and access support.

We have a growing hub of volunteers based in Italy and an Italian Pachamama Ambassador, who receives EU-made pads. To make our distributions as sustainable as possible, pads made in the EU stay in the EU and have been distributed in the past in Italy, Greece and Latvia.