14 Jun 2018

Samoa-designed affordable menstrual pads launched

2:19 pm on 14 June 2018

Affordable and environmentally friendly menstrual pads designed by two Samoan women have been launched on the market.

MANA Care's hand sewn cotton pads.

MANA Care's hand sewn cotton pads. Photo: Supplied/ MANA Care Products

MANA Care's handsewn cotton pads are reusable.

The project was one of 12 winners in the plastic waste category of the Low Carbon Lifestyles Challenge, run by the UN Environment Programme.

The programme's Janet Salem said the challenge funded by Japan and the EU aimed to make sustainable lifestyles easier in Asia and the Pacific and the MANA Care project was the only one selected from the Pacific region.

"It is actually giving consumers access to female hygiene products sometimes for the first time and that is something that Angelica and Isabell feel very strongly about as they are going to ensure the product is available to low income consumers who were either using unhygienic methods or they weren't using much at all and it was preventing them from interacting socially while they had their periods every month."

MANA Care was awarded $US10,000 (NZ$14,238) through the challenge which promoted low carbon mobility, extreme energy efficiency and low plastic or waste prevention.

The pads cost about 70 tala or $US27 (NZ$38.40) per packet.