Menustration management in developing countries -OMG Ladies read this

"I was brought up in the city of Pune. My parents were quite unorthodox in their approach to menstruation and I did not have to endure exclusion from religious functions, or seclusion at home and elsewhere and so on during my periods. But I did face a major problem - attendance at school. It was about 7 km away from my home and commuting was not direct; hence I could not come home easily if I had a problem at school. The school was located in an area with very little ground water, and municipal water supply was also inadequate. As a result, on most days, all taps in the school, including those in the toilets, ran dry. I needed to change every 4 to 5 hours for about 3 to 4 days and hence I had to remain absent from school at the beginning of each period - which lasted for 9 or 10 days. One or two of my teachers were concerned about the gaps in my attendance and I distinctly remember two occasions on which I was asked why I remained absent so often. Unfortunately, I did not have the courage to broach the subject myself and I remained guiltily silent, as if I had no valid reason, and accepted the blame.
"When I was in my late twenties, the municipal corporation arranged to send what is called a 'ghanta gaadi' (a mobile trash collection bin mounted on wheels and trundled along by an employee of the Sanitation Department), in the locality where we lived. One day in October, when I carried the trash from our home to the gaadi, the employee, who happened to be a middle-aged woman, told me not to trash any sanitary pads over the next 10 days, as it was the Navratri festival. She was worshipping the goddess and hence having to handle menstrual material would not be acceptable, she said. She had no qualms about handling any other kind of trash! After some deliberation, our family began make it a point to themselves deposit all trash in the large containers provided in each locality by the municipal corporation, thus avoiding passing on our 'dirty work' to others."

Wow.

Over 12 BILLION pads and tampons are USED ONCE and disposed of annually, clogging our overburdened landfill sites.
An average woman throws away 125 to 150 Kgs of tampons, pads and applicators in her lifetime. The great majority of these end up in landfills, or as something the sewage treatment plants must deal with.

girls in India make pads

Sayahog initiated a programme of Washable pads for women in Almora, Uttar Pradesh with the long term aim of ensuring them greater freedom. Women prior to this, initiative would sit in a cow shed during their period. Part of the work of Sayahog was to make women realize that the blood doesn't come out of their bodies inherently polluted or smelling. They used the simple logic of asking women what a piece of meat would smell like after it has been sitting in the sun for a week. This then encouraged women to try out using sanitary pads that were essentially sifted wood ash wrapped in a cloth. Wood ash is readily available, absorbs odours, and can easily be thrown out into the woods or fields when the pad has been used. This disguised their menstruation, allowing them to pursue normal activities, at least for part of their period.