Goonj "Not Just A Cloth"

Hi, my name is Yashna and I’m a junior at River Hill High School.

I’m passionate about making a difference in the lives of women, and I believe that menstrual health should never be a source of shame or struggle. That’s why I’m raising funds to support 50 menstruating women in India by providing them with essential sanitary pad kits through the Goonj “Not Just a Piece of Cloth” initiative.

In many parts of India, millions of women lack access to basic menstrual hygiene. Due to stigma and poverty, they’re forced to use unsafe materials like rags, ash, or nothing at all—putting their health and dignity at risk. The silence around this issue only makes things worse.

Each woman will receive a sanitary pad kit, which includes reusable sanitary pads, undergarments, clean clothing, and hygiene items—giving them not just products, but a sense of dignity, knowledge, and support.

My goal is to raise ₹60,000 (about $720 USD) to support 50 women. I’m deeply committed to this cause and want to be part of changing how we see and support menstrual health, for good.

Together, we can break the silence and create lasting change.

Thank you so much for your support.

For more info visit: https://goonj.org/njpc/

READ MORE BELOW:

PROBLEM: Millions of women in India and many other parts of the world still struggle for basic clothes to cover their bodies. For them, this struggle becomes bigger as they also struggle for a basic piece of cloth for their menstruation every month in an environment of strong silence and shame around this issue. In such a scenario, they end up using rags, ash, newspapers, jute bags, used pads, and sand in dire compulsion, or worse, they use NOTHING. This all-pervasive taboo around this basic need is present in the cities and villages of India, which prevents women from even voicing their menstrual challenges.

SITUATION OF THE WOMEN IN THE TARGET AREAS

The issue and concept of menstruation are so taboo that no one is prepared to discuss it freely. This means that women do not have all of the knowledge they need to make health-related decisions. The culture of shame and silence surrounding this fundamental issue exacerbates the misinformation and risks that young girls and women confront every month.

During menstruation, ladies utilize anything available and usually receive their supply from old sarees and bedsheets. They find the menstrual products difficult to dispose of when there is no adequate disposal system in place. The women are discarding old menstruation pads into rivers, excavated wells, drainage, and fields. This makes it susceptible to diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, caused by the influx of waste into these water basins.

Some of the dominant taboos in the region…

· Cannot cook during menstruation

· Cannot enter religious places during menstruation

· Cannot take bath or wash their hair during menstruation

· Cannot bring water for their houses

· Cannot touch elders or children, especially infants

· Cannot eat from other people’s house

· Have to eat and drink in separate utensils

· Have to sleep on the ground during those four to seven days of menstruation

· Have to sleep in a separate hut or in the corner of the house during menstruation

SOLUTION

Goonj has been working on this issue for the past decade, with the NOT JUST A PIECE OF CLOTH INITITIVE focused on evolving a comprehensive solution around what we call the four A’s (Awareness, Access, Affordability, and action), with a larger focus on creating a space for women to talk about their menstrual challenges and treat it as a normal. That is why our work around the issue is not just about providing pads or a product, but triggering a mass-scale dialogue in society and making it a normal issue.

The clean cloth pads, ‘MY Pads’ we make from surplus cotton cloth from the cities act as a talking point with women in villages and semi-rural communities about related health and hygiene issues and breaking the silence and shame around it by creating a safe space for women to share their challenges and restrictions and make it normal.

CONTENTS OF A ‘MY PAD - WOMEN KIT

· Two MY Pad packs (GOONJ's clean cloth sanitary pads), where each pack contains -

o 8 'MYPads' with pad covers

o Two undergarments

o An information leaflet

o A waterproof pouch (made out of used flex, optional, based on availability) for a woman to carry her pad for washing and reuse later.

· Two sets of women's clothing/woolens

· A pair of women's footwears

· Aasan (sitting mat)/Dari

· Toiletries/women accessories (as per availability)

· Goonj ka Jhola (handmade Goonj’s cloth bags, for reaching out an eco-friendly daily utility item)

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Our implementation will be divided into two phases in each phase we will be 1) Reaching out to 8500 women and girls in West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh.

2) Conducting awareness sessions on menstrual and personal health & hygiene. Sensitizing women on their Health as a priority, right practices around clothing and menstruation, Capturing stories and quotes of their menstrual challenges

3) Developing women's health & hygiene-related infrastructures largely with local resources focusing on sanitation/personal hygiene and water-related activities. (Minimum one activity in each village, further sensitizing women to take up similar kinds of activities voluntarily).

4) Reaching out with a set of ‘MY Pad - Women kits’ to each woman. (2 packs of MY Pad, 2 sets of women's clothing/woolen, a pair of women's footwear, Aasan/Dari, toiletries/women's accessories, and 1 Goonj ka Jhola.)

ESTIMATED PROPOSED BUDGET AND COVERAGE

· Implementation Areas: Pan India

· Project Timeline: June 2025 to Nov 2025

· Beneficiaries: 50 menstruating women

· Estimated Budget: INR 60,000/- ((INR 1200 Spent on Per Women as Each Women Receives Two My Pad Kits @ Rs. 600/ Per Kit)

PROPOSED IMPACT

· Physical Impact – Reaching out clean cloth pads in the form of MY Pads to women in the most far-flung villages of India, where they don’t have basic cloth for this basic need or they don’t have access or can’t afford the market sanitary pads.· Mindset Impact – The most important impact is that it nudges them to change their attitude towards menstrual hygiene. It works on influencing their practices around using cloth as a pad i.e. washing, storing, reusing, disposing of it, etc. This means that irrespective of what she uses in the future, she will be mindful of her menstrual health. The larger mindset change has to do with repositioning menstruation as a normal process in a woman’s mind as we get her to speak about her menstrual challenges in an open and safe environment without any shame and silence.

· Infrastructural Impact –It is important to look at this issue comprehensively for women, whether it’s the need for water, toilets, private spaces, or nutrition. Goonj involves women and the community in identifying and addressing some of these issues with their resources, work, and wisdom

For more info visit: https://goonj.org/njpc/