Some good news for a change...

Recently Tampax and Always announced that they would be partnering up with organizations to provide necessary products to school age girls in sub-Saharan Africa. Tampax and Always are joining forces with organizations called HERO and Protecting Futures to provide these girls with products to help them during their menstrual cycle.

These girls cannot afford tampons or pads many have resorted to staying home instead of attending school. To help positively affect the education and lives of these girls these companies will be providing them with the products the girls need to attend school during their menstrual cycle.

After noticing that many girls were missing about 4 days of school every 4 weeks these organizations realized that the were absent due to their menstrual cycle. Their families do not have the money to buy products such as tampons and pads. Without these necessary items the girls from sub-Saharan Africa were feeling embarrassed every time they got their period and had to attend school. As a result, instead of being embarrassed, they would simply not attend school. For these girls to miss approximately 4 days of school every 4 weeks could equal out to as much as 20% of their school days.

Not only was this time of the month embarrassing for her, but the facilities provided by the school lacked of clean and private sanitation.

This new partnership will begin with an advertising campaign released by Tampax due to come out this fall. The campaign will promote puberty education in support of these young girls in Africa.

As stated by Michelle Vaeth, Protecting Futures Program Director for P&G "There are lots of reasons kids miss school, being a girl shouldn't be one of them." Sounds like a good slogan

I think this story is inspiring because with all of the news circulating about how detrimental junk food advertising is to children, here is a company who is truly proving they care for their customer. Tampax and Always have been excluding from the media in the war against advertising to children, and instead of laying low they decided to set an example.

Inspiration for this blog post provided by Tampax and Always Launch Protecting Futures Program Dedicated to Helping African Girls Stay in School