Napsiah supervising a workshop participant at PPR Gombak Setia. — Bernama
Seamstress Fadilah Ali, who has 15 years of experience sewing traditional and modern garments, now plans to make and sell her own line of affordable and reusable sanitary pads.
The idea emerged when she attended a workshop by Bidadari Malaysia, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that addresses period poverty, violence against women, and cancer prevention.
Held at the Gombak Setia People’s Housing Project (PPR) in Selangor, where Fadilah lives, the event saw volunteers teaching participants how to sew their own washable sanitary pads.
Before that, Fadilah had not known how easy it was to sew them.
She was also excited to find out that minimal capital was needed.
“All this while, I’ve been using cloth scraps to make hair ties which I give free to customers.
“But, now, I will earn additional money from the material.”
Fadilah estimated that with one metre of fabric, she could make around 10 reusable pads priced at between RM8 and RM10 each.
At the workshop that was co-organised by the Subzone 5 Wangsa Maju Residents Representative Council (MPP), she showed Bernama how she stitched a pad in just 10 minutes.
“I will use the pads myself first before I make more, because I need to experience wearing them,” she said.
Fadilah hoped to teach other PPR residents how to sew washable pads which they could sell or give away to underprivileged women.
Most retail reusable sanitary pads are made of flannel, along with absorbent cotton-like material.
This got Fadilah thinking of creating better packaging as well as different sizes and thickness for her cloth pads to meet the needs of consumers.
Bidadari volunteer and nurse Azura Ibrahim said she never once felt unclean or uncomfortable using washable pads over the past two years.
“They are cheaper and safer to use compared to disposable pads which are made of synthetic materials,” she opined.
Azura quoted a Bidadari study which showed that a woman spends about RM26 a month and RM312 a year on disposable pads.
“A woman only needs about RM36 to acquire six pads which she can use for up to three years,” she said, adding that fabric pads offered better absorption.
Bidadari chairman Napsiah Khamis said some menstruating girls skipped school as they could not afford pads.
“We’ve heard some girls use socks or batik cloth as pads.
“Some homeless women are forced to go through rubbish bins for old cloths which they use as pads,” she added.
Stories like these led Bidadari to introduce reusable pads which were more economical.
“It is something they themselves can sew and help other women with,” said Napsiah.
She revealed that period poverty worsened during the Covid-19 movement control order when many women lost jobs and could not afford to buy sanitary napkins.
Bidadari’s initiative has so far benefitted 1,000 women in Kuala Lumpur, Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang.
Napsiah recalled one workshop in a remote Orang Asli village in Kelantan where the women did not know how to use a sewing machine.
“So, we taught them how to stitch pads by hand,” she said.
She shared how Bidadari’s efforts had increased awareness among men too.
“Once, we even received a lorry load of reusable sanitary napkins donated by a man.
“Organisations have also donated pads while some university students have documented period poverty in their theses,” she said.
She pointed out that in Taiwan and South Korea, one-day unrecorded leave was given to staff suffering menstrual cramps.
“Some companies in Malaysia have started this too,” she added.
Napsiah urged companies to do more by providing free sanitary pads in their washrooms.
Working across borders, Bidadari has teamed up with a Kenyan women’s NGO to send reusable sanitary towels made by workshop participants to the African nation.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri was quoted as saying that the National Population and Family Development Board’s 2023 Menstrual Management Status Study Report revealed 9.9% of 130,000 female students have “problems obtaining products to manage their periods”.
