The Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative (P.A.S.H.I.) brings joy to people all across the world by creating reusable, washable cotton menstruation pads for girls and women in Africa and the Caribbean.
Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza, one of the founders, told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “We don’t call it period poverty, we call it menstrual hygiene management. We use 100% cotton fabric. We researched and found a commercial product called Zorb, a 100% compressed cotton that absorbs liquid that is seven to eight times its weight. Then we used a laminated cotton material as the water-resistant layer.”
She added, “I just love the impact it’s having. They’re not using something that’s unhealthy. They are not open to [sexual] predators taking advantage of them [in exchange for buying pads]. They have something so they can manage their periods with dignity.”
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P.A.S.H.I. members meet every Wednesday at the Ujima Friends Peace Center in North Philadelphia, driven by a mission, sewing machines, and Black women. The majority of the volunteers are retired women. They are or were college professors, teachers, CEOs, nurses, health administrators, social workers, doctors, environmentalists, skilled poets, artists, and quilters.
One of the volunteers, Jackie Wilkins, expressed, “They are all my friends now, and it’s a really strong sisterhood.”
P.A.S.H.I. was first started in 2019 as a project of the Sankofa Artisans Guild, which is made up of jewelry makers, quilters, woodworkers, and other artists and crafters. Not all P.A.S.H.I. volunteers are guild members, and not all guild members are P.A.S.H.I. members.
“We started small, with no funding. Just goodwill,” Sullivan-Ongoza said.
According to Sullivan-Ongoza, the guild has been undertaking a social justice project every year for many years. As part of that effort, the group regularly provided or sent educational supplies to a school in The Gambia. But in 2019, school officials informed them that female students had a particular need for menstruation pads.
“They told us that girls often missed school for days when they had their periods. And if they stained their clothing while at school, they were teased and bullied,” Sullivan-Ongoza said.
According to her, certain girls fall prey to men who promise to buy them commercially made pads in exchange for having sex.
In September 2019, a 14-year-old girl from Kenya committed suicide after being “period shamed” for staining her school clothes. That’s when Sullivan-Ongoza realized she and the quilters needed to use their expertise to manufacture reusable pads.
“At first, we thought it was going to be our social justice project for one year,” she said. “But the demand was so great. People were asking us to make them from all across the continent.”
However, Sullivan-Ongoza, an environmentalist, stated that the organization is not interested in delivering commercially produced pads similar to those used in the United States due to the “forever chemicals” in them.
Every individual plays a distinct role for the majority of the day. People who don’t sew have other responsibilities: Some cut fabric for the “wings,” which are butterfly-shaped swaths of material attached on Zorb pads.
Others iron the finished wings before the cushions are installed. Some specialize in utilizing a machine to affix snaps to the wings’ flaps, allowing the entire pad to be folded into a 2-inch square and kept in a colorful pouch.
Some women simply sew the little pouches used to store the pads. The pouches are textile clutches that can be discreetly stored in book bags or handbags.
If properly cared for and washed, the pads can last for three years, whereas commercially packaged pads, Sullivan-Ongoza claimed, are used only once before being discarded, and they may have detrimental effects on girls’ health.
