More about The Pad Project
The Pad Project was started in 2013 by a youth-driven community of Oakwood students and educators convinced that menstruation matters for everyone. What began as a documentary film project highlighting a single village has expanded to an organization with a global reach. In the last year alone, The Pad Project was able to form global partnerships with 16 organizations in 9 countries (Afghanistan, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Uganda) and domestically The Pad Project provides grants to non-profit organizations to purchase and distribute period care products.
The idea for the film Period. End of Sentence. began when Melissa Berton took a group of her students to the 2013 Annual Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. There they learned about the issue of girls in low-income countries missing or dropping out of school with the onset of menstruation. They also learned about Indian inventor Arunachalam Muruganantham, who created a pad-making machine to produce cheaper and more easily accessible menstrual pads. They were so inspired by Muruganantham’s invention that they decided to shine a spotlight on the issue of menstrual inequity by funding the placement of a pad machine and making a documentary about its effects.
