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3. Reusable Pads, Community Wisdom & Period Justice with Maisha Sullivan Ongoza
64 Plays1 month ago
In this powerful episode of Our Womanity, we sit down with Maisha Sullivan Ongoza, the visionary behind P.A.S.H.I. — the Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative. Maisha shares how this community-rooted organisation is tackling period poverty, reducing stigma around menstruation, and centering ancestral wisdom through eco-friendly, reusable menstrual products. From intergenerational teachings led by elders to engaging boys and men in the conversation, Maisha walks us through how P.A.S.H.I. is changing lives across the globe.
What We Cover:
- The origin and mission behind P.A.S.H.I
- Why menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is a public health and dignity issue
- The power of reusable pads and eco-conscious period solutions
- The importance of involving elders as hands-on teachers
- How P.A.S.H.I. is shifting cultural norms by including men and boys
- Stories of impact from Philadelphia to Africa and the Caribbean
- How you can support or replicate this model in your own community
About P.A.S.H.I:
P.A.S.H.I. empowers girls, women, and others by providing free, eco-friendly, reusable menstrual pads and education on life skills, reproductive health, and MHM. With over 47 global shipments and annual youth workshops in Philadelphia, P.A.S.H.I is restoring dignity and access one pad at a time.
Impact Snapshot:
- 47+ pad shipments to Africa & the Caribbean since 2019
Thousands of free menstrual and hygiene kits distributed - Annual youth workshops teaching reusable pad creation
- Hands-on guidance from elders in the community
Key Quote from Maisha:
"We’re not just handing out products—we’re rebuilding a sense of worth, reclaiming ancestral knowledge, and reminding our young people they are worthy of care, dignity, and tradition."
Resources & Links:
Website: www.pashiglobal.org
Email: pashi.global@gmail.com
Phone: (215) 385-0214
Subscribe to Our Womanity wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a review to help amplify women-led grassroots change around the world!
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Transcript
Origin of 'On the Rag'
00:00:00
Speaker
Have you heard the term the rag or on your rag as slang for menstruation? Did you ever think about what it actually means? It comes from the realities of menstrual care before modern disposable products were widely available. Historically, women use cloth rags, strips of fabric, or old clothing as makeshift menstrual pads.
00:00:21
Speaker
These reusable cloth pieces were washed and reused monthly, making rags a literal description of the materials that were used. The phrase on the rag started to come from this practical association, likely gained in the early to mid-20th century as common phrases. The expression became more widespread as euphemism during an era when menstruation was rarely discussed openly. it has continued on to
Slang and Education Impact
00:00:45
Speaker
today.
00:00:45
Speaker
Many period-related slang terms served as kind of coded language that allowed people, especially women, to reference menstruation indirectly. The phrase often carried negative connotations and was sometimes used dismissively, particularly when it was applied to someone's mood or behavior. The literal use of rags for menstrual care was common into the nineteen hundreds especially among working class women and in rural areas where commercial products were expensive or not available. Women all around the world continue to use cloth today, but because they are not hugely absorbent, they require frequent washing and it's not something that is amenable to a person who's trying to go to school.
00:01:24
Speaker
So think about the girls and adolescents around the world who are trying to manage with meager pieces of cloth and are having bleeding, especially if they're having heavy bleeding, and how it might just make them want to stay home from school, potentially making them miss a week of school every month.
00:01:40
Speaker
Over time, you can imagine how that might add up and how it might put a girl or a young woman at disadvantage if she wants to pursue her education. Even after disposable pads became more accessible in the nineteen twenty s and 1930s, a lot of women continued to use homemade cloth for economic reasons.
00:01:58
Speaker
And while the practical necessity that gave rise to the term has largely disappeared with menstrual products, on the rag has persisted in colloquial speech, but it's generally considered crude or outdated. The evolution of this phrase reflects broader changes in both menstrual care technology and social attitudes towards discussing periods openly. Do you discuss periods openly? I don't. I still find myself whispering or not really wanting to make it too obvious. right? Who wants to bring their intimate health out into the public? This is how stigma persists.
Introduction to Maisha Sullivan-Angoza
00:02:31
Speaker
One person who's working to break down that stigma and enhance sisterhood is Ms. Maisha Sullivan-Angoza. She holds degrees in education and social work from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. She has a career rich in helping Families, Communities, and Women in Philadelphia. At one time, she was working as the director within the Rendell Mayor Administration's Mayor's Children and Families Cabinet of Philadelphia.
00:02:57
Speaker
She also um was the executive director of the Pan-African Studies Community Education Program at Temple University. She was the founding director of the Madeira Family Center, the first community-based and participant-driven family support program in Philadelphia. This center, under her tenure, received national attention and awards for its innovative practices of partnering and empowering families and communities.
00:03:19
Speaker
She's the local chairperson of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association of Kauaida Organizations. and the founding member and co-chair of the Kwanzaa Cooperative, founded in 1980. She's a highly requested national consultant and trainer in organizational development, family support, and community building. And her areas of expertise are in family support, cultural democracy, community building, and African-American culture that has involved her nationally and internationally. I'm so excited to have you here, Maisha Sullivan-Angoza.
PASHI Initiative and Global Outreach
00:03:50
Speaker
She is a powerhouse, a mover and a shaker, i would say. It's a first time meeting, but when I learned about all that she's been doing in Philadelphia and internationally and nationally, was very impressed to say the least.
00:04:03
Speaker
And what I'm really interested in learning about today is the PASHI, or do you call it PASHI? Yes, PASCHI. PASCHI. Okay, so welcome, Aisha. I'm like so excited to have you here. And um please tell us about PASCHI, what it is, what it stands for, and how you decided to get it started.
00:04:22
Speaker
Again, thank you for the invite. And it's always a blessing to share about Pashi and the ah wonderful people who make this all possible. Such a small little project starting in North Philadelphia, small part of North Philadelphia, impoverished area we're located in.
00:04:39
Speaker
And people come from all over. It's a very diverse group of age, faith, race, culture, and it's all volunteer-based. And we it started in 2019, returning from one of my trips to Africa. I usually go there once a year and always visit schools and bring school supplies and disposable pads and things the schools ask me to bring.
00:05:01
Speaker
And a friend of mine's opened the school in the Gambia. A friend from Philadelphia opened the school in Gambia. And she was just saying, we really need pads. The girls miss school because they don't have pads and on and on and on.
00:05:12
Speaker
And I know it was no way you could keep supplying them with disposables. Most people use it one time. I'm finding out that many young women use them multiple times.
Sankofa Artisans Guild's Role
00:05:21
Speaker
wow just wear them to school, take them off after school, put it back on. They'll have one pad the whole time and just use it for school. This is disposable. Just to get to school, just to make it through the school deck. Just to make it to school or keep a tampon in multiple days.
00:05:35
Speaker
So I'm learning these things, right? And I go online to see how are people addressing this issue and reading, you know, just about the environment impact of disposables for one thing. Many them have a toxic...
00:05:47
Speaker
for other chemicals in them, and the carbon footprint that they're contributing to and ah trying to dispose of them. So I'm in group artists in Philly called the Sankofa Artisans Guild.
00:05:59
Speaker
And we're textile, we we work with textiles, we're multimedia. But I asked these friends would they, I looked online and saw people were making reusables. And I you know i looked and I saw, there was a pattern offered online.
00:06:12
Speaker
And I printed the pattern out and I brought it to the to the group and asked what they helped me make some pads for this school in the Gambia. And we everybody have extra fabric. If you sew, everybody got stash. Right.
00:06:23
Speaker
So I was reading on what we could use. and And so they said, yeah, we'll do it one time. We'll help out because the guild does every annual um community service projects that we made blankets for children. We made things for the homeless.
00:06:35
Speaker
So we do a ah project every year, outreach, a community project. So this was going to be it just for 2019. like So we sat there and brought our little sewing machines in and everybody made the made our first set of pads.
00:06:47
Speaker
And these are reusable. You can wash them. on You know, over the years, we perfected how we make them. I looked to see what was the best practice people were using to make them.
00:06:58
Speaker
I joined about four Facebook groups that all about reusable pads. I had no idea there were so many groups. It's about four or five groups a minute. And they're very supportive each other and tell you what works, what doesn't, what's good ah alternatives to things. And so you kind of figure out what's the best practice.
00:07:16
Speaker
So once we did it once and and my friend told me how receptive the girls were to the pads and how they're liking the pads, I asked some more friends, you know, then we just started, just started for one time.
00:07:27
Speaker
And now we have up to almost 60 shipments. Wow. Multiple countries, multiple. We send to the Gambia often because our friend has a school there, but multiple times to Ghana, wherever people are going, we'll ask them, can they take our pads? Cause we got a connection there and they'll, you know, pass them on for us.
00:07:45
Speaker
And a small shipment for us is 350
00:07:48
Speaker
That's the least. That's a small shipment. That's a small shipment, but not only do we send the pads, we also send panties. Okay. And we send a pouch that we make a reusable waterproof pouch. So if they change during the day, they can keep it with them and it won't saturate through. And we so we have a water resistant line pouch that we also make that we give, we send with the pads.
00:08:09
Speaker
So we, so we just started making them and we meet weekly and a the least attendance we have is like 20 something volunteers. Wow, that's incredible. Into the small room. We can be up to 40, almost 50. We just be packed in there.
00:08:23
Speaker
And everybody doesn't sew. Everybody doesn't know how to sew. So we have a lot of non-sewing jobs, ah people just cutting for us or assembling. It's like an assembly line. Everybody has a part of the production and the end product. Everybody contributes to this end product.
00:08:39
Speaker
So we have people from um almost 90 years old to young girls who are middle school, eighth graders, 13 and 14 year old. That's so nice. And all races, all faiths, all economic backgrounds, it's just a microcosm of the world we want.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yes. yeah i mean It's a microcosm of the world we want and the world we deserve operating in that small little space, but having global impact. As I share, we are. And not only just to Africa, we've sent to Brazil recently. oh We've sent shipments to Cuba, but because of the ah economic sanctions against Cuba, it's the quality of life is harsh and women don't have access to mental hygiene products.
00:09:18
Speaker
And then we also here the United States because it's an issue here too. yeah Young girls here, they'll stuff socks with toilet paper and paper towels. Oh, gosh. Or the school counselors and teachers are supplying them.
00:09:29
Speaker
And I also found some friends who work in the juvenile justice system that a lot of times when young girls are caught shoplifting in stores, they always have menstrual hygiene products as one of the things they're shoplifting. Oh, my goodness.
00:09:42
Speaker
so It's funny very expensive. i think I don't think that men are aware at all how much time and and resources menstruation actually consumes and how it's going to affect a girl's education. Yes, it it really can. And women, you know, women and girls, we're going to take care.
00:10:02
Speaker
going to have this stuff just dripping down our legs. You know, for women have been bleeding for thousands of years and they found ways to manage it and, you know, manage it in dignity affirming ways. But what happens when things come in i positions, like we've said, we work with women in refugee camps and girls who are in boarding schools and they're not in a natural environment where they make and find what their ancestors use. Because we all women at one time use cloth.
Innovative Menstrual Solutions
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah. mean That's just what we use. and We use old cloths and old rags all around the world. That's been what women have used. But, you know, like someone told me from South Sudan, she spent time with us and we taught her how to make the pads. She spent multiple weeks with us and she worked with refugees.
00:10:43
Speaker
And I'm asking her, why don't the women just use old rags like they used to use to make the pads? And she said, we don't have old rags. I said, everybody has old rags. She said, no, whatever's soft for us and cloth, like she said, becomes bedding.
00:10:56
Speaker
Oh my goodness, right. There's other needs, yeah. So there's other needs. So you'd be thinking, you know, why don't there's issues? Oh, she said everything that's soft becomes bedding.
00:11:08
Speaker
Wow. its yeah and that's where the rat you know People say you're on your rag. or You're on your rag. That was the same. When we had PMS, they would sell you on a rag. That was the old saying.
00:11:19
Speaker
Because we we used women use cloth. So this isn't a new idea. This is actually returning or returning to something that when women had total control over what they needed for their daily lives, they made it out of what they had in their environment.
00:11:34
Speaker
And so we're just modernizing. I was just in Kenya ah meeting with thousands of girls in this school and they call our pads an innovation. is young oh my god These young girls. They said innovation. I said, oh, no, it's not.
00:11:52
Speaker
It's what your grandmamas and all them use. I said, they just look cuter now because we got them shaped modern, look like wings. and yeah They just called innovation. It meant so much to them to see. Yeah.
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah. see these young heads and And it was really something that is is remarkable for them because like so many modern women, they have been removed from, you know, this kind of self-sufficiency and being able to do something for yourself. We're so consumerism and product orientated. So it was innovation here. yeah Well, I guess one of the innovating parts is if we think back to what our ancestors probably were using,
00:12:28
Speaker
they probably couldn't, you know, probably a simple cloth wasn't holding that much liquid. And so that's, you know, then when schools and education became an option, you know,
00:12:39
Speaker
that's where the problem starts begin, right? Then a ah girl doesn't have that time or there's no appreciation of allowing a girl when she's on her menstrual cycle to then be able to ah clean or wash something like that. Or maybe she's embarrassed or there's stigma associated with it. And so I'm assuming what you and and your colleagues are creating is holding more liquid.
00:13:02
Speaker
We use a product called Zorb, Z-O-R-B. It's the best practice out there. And and it's a cotton. It's a compressed cotton. And it can hold 10 times its weight in liquid.
00:13:14
Speaker
Wow. and still And still remains soft and won't break up. And it's embedded inside of the the pad. So it can hold a lot. But let me tell you something I learned in Ethiopia when I was in rural Ethiopia in the Omo Valley, how brilliant women are, which is talking with the women, with a group of women there.
00:13:30
Speaker
and And Ethiopians are weavers, too. They have lots of cloth. they mean So we're talking about, you know, what do they use? Because I didn't want to like just get pads out willy nilly. I don't want to undermine what what women may have that works well for them.
00:13:42
Speaker
So they told me they wrap their cloth. Right. these are pastoral women who raise goats and cows and things like that. They wrap their cloth and in between each layer of the cloth, they put a layer of butter, like the oil.
00:13:55
Speaker
The oil makes it water resistant. Oh my goodness. That's brilliant.
00:14:03
Speaker
This one I go, I love talking to find out what, and so I'm like, I'm not give them my little cloth pad. This is the best thing. They got all this oil and butter from the cows and the goats and they got the cloth they weave.
00:14:15
Speaker
Who's going to undermine that? But the brilliant of it is like they probably been doing that for thousands of years. That's incredible. Now on ours, we got a water resistant fabric.
00:14:27
Speaker
on the bottom layer. We have a fabric, it's a laminated cotton to do the same thing they're doing with the butter sort or the oil or whatever. I love that. And you know, we would never know that because it's not like this stuff is written down. yeah what i do At least from what ah might what I'm aware of.
00:14:43
Speaker
yeah So i love that you found a community that's kept their tradition intact for yeah like and probably forever. And how smart it is and how brilliant it is. And love that you went there asked questions, right? And found out what they Always ask questions. We collect stories. We collect narratives of of what women use. And some of are pretty sad. Like if you're in an urban setting, you're not ready. ain't got your couch. You ain't got your butt on. ah We've heard in multiple countries that if you're in a city and someone throws an old mattress out, all the women and girls converge on the dump where the old mattress is and take the cotton out.
00:15:23
Speaker
They bust it open. Now, the mattress is in the
Global Sisterhood and Education
00:15:26
Speaker
trash for reason, right? In the dumps. And they rush there and they take the cotton out so they can have it to use. Yeah. and they sleep will Come on. So we hear we hear stories like that, too. You know, yeah but that's the one time you saw me, too. So did the next month, they're still in search of something.
00:15:43
Speaker
You know, it's this loose cotton that they pull out old discarded, dirty mattress. So we hear stories like that. and And then we hear about the cloth and in the butter layer. Or we hear about the weaving of very soft grass into pads.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so we hear we you hear them all. You hear from when they have access to things in their environment and it's natural. They they have figured out over the years. And then we hear about when women are in other settings and they don't have such access.
00:16:13
Speaker
what they're relying All over again. Yes. Yes. I love this idea of sisterhood too. And i saw that when was reading about the organization, this idea that, you know, it's women all over the world, helping each other and supporting one another. And that sounds like that's something that's important to you. It's very important, you know, for being a female, right? And having daughters and sisters. and And most of us, we started out, we retirees, like I'm like 77 and we got some members 80 and 90s women. So we just couldn't imagine not being able to take care of our menstrual hygiene. right you know Even though I came up poor, I never had a problem doing it. We're working with the young girls now. So what would you do if you didn't have access to pads? I try to get them to
00:16:57
Speaker
place themselves and and they would say we'll just use paper towel we'll just you know so this let them know this is why we're making these pads our sisters around the world don't have this stress on them
Community Involvement and Sustainability
00:17:07
Speaker
they don't have stress about other things but this is not one of them right yeah to know this is taken care of and they can deal with all the other issues in their life if but i could never not imagine not being able to do that you know Right.
00:17:20
Speaker
So so that's the whole thing. And we talk about it as women. We couldn't. them But then we hear some stories from some of the women. Well, one time I had to do this because I got caught out. You're not getting emerging things. think you got caught. they came on And what you do then, you know, the paper towel, the toilet tissue, whatever. on an Airplane. and start learning. Yeah, the airplane. But to have to do that every month for so many years that we're having our cycle, it just gets to us.
00:17:45
Speaker
And then every time we hear a story, because we work a lot with African interns who come to the country and come to the United States ah on fellowships and they find their way to us and we get more narratives ah and stories.
00:17:58
Speaker
And every time we hear, well, we just get to the sewing machine start sewing more. You know, we just start sewing. I love that. Or when one of us travel, a lot of us travel and we come back and we share because we we know we wherever we go, we collect stories.
00:18:11
Speaker
Right. So do we bring them back for motivation and inspiration. You know, like the story, the cloth and the butter, that just inspired everybody. It was just amazing. Absolutely.
00:18:21
Speaker
to to to share that story, but it ties us together as women around the world. We can understand what this means to be able to keep yourself clean in a dignified way and, you you know, with no stigma attached to it.
00:18:34
Speaker
we We know what this means. And so it's important for us to try and assist where we can. Yeah. And I think a lot of people listening today are going to be inspired as well. And so I would love to to know from you, how could someone get involved, whether it's volunteering, donating, um you know, how could they get involved to help in this effort that you're doing? Because I think people are going to be moved.
00:18:58
Speaker
we We're on Facebook at Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative, Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative. We do have a website. It's Pashi Global. we We get a little funds, but basically we remain unfunded.
00:19:09
Speaker
ah Most of our fabric, like 95% of our fabric is donated. People give us fabrics. And then with the small little grant we have, we buy the best practice fab, this Zorb and this laminated cotton. We want to make sure that we always use the best practice and those that's been tested.
00:19:27
Speaker
We make sure that it's echo friendly. So the other ones just cotton. So people just give us a lot of cotton. You know, grandmom died and she had a lot of cotton. We get people, people donate sewing machines to us.
00:19:38
Speaker
But we also need funds because sometimes we have to pay for our suitcase to go and this might be excess luggage. I was going to say the shipping is probably the biggest cost, right? Well, a lot of times when we try and give it to people who go, who are going there. They're traveling. Okay. Yeah, they're traveling there. We don't do it with containers. We want hand to hand delivery, right?
00:19:56
Speaker
Okay. So we might have to pay excess luggage if someone said, well, already got two suitcases and this is going to be the third. So excess luggage is like $200 and 50 pounds. And we got it down to science. How many pads? We can get 350 pads then we can get panties, we can get pouches.
00:20:12
Speaker
And we also send patterns, ah templates on how, and instructions on how to make it themselves. well And we send some sewing notions to encourage them and some blanks to see how we do it.
00:20:24
Speaker
So we we're always trying to support self-sufficiency, right? yeah yeah So we always need financial, we need financial support, fabric. And we like people giving us fabric, you know, it's just sitting around and we put it to good use and you don't know how to sew you. what we all eat We meet on Wednesdays during the day because most of us are retirees.
00:20:42
Speaker
ah We meet from 10 to three. And so it's just become a strong sisterhood, even though we got one brother always there with us. nice He raised five daughters. So he said he knows. so he's aware so He's very aware. He's been there from the beginning and he's one our biggest, biggest supporters. well I'm not much of a sower myself, but I know there's a lot of a lot of people out there listening who are.
Collaborations and Broader Impact
00:21:08
Speaker
Can you cut, can you use scissors and i cut? We'll put you to work. We'll put you to work. I love that. I could always help with luggage and I can also bring some luggage when I'm traveling to Africa myself.
00:21:21
Speaker
Where do you go? Where do you go to Africa? So right now I've been working on a partnership in Senegal and we were actually talking about visiting the Gambia on one of our trips. I do um fistula repairs for women who've had childbirth injuries.
00:21:34
Speaker
yeah where they're incontinent. So the pads, you know, oftentimes we're trying to find reusable pads, even for urine leakage. yeah And so that is a big thing that the organization I used to work for in Malawi, Freedom from Fistula, they used to have a big project where they taught some of the women who had had surgery and were recovering, they were teaching them how to sew pads, both for menstrual products and also for incontinence products.
00:21:59
Speaker
Because for a lot of them, while they're waiting for surgery or even after surgery, they might still be leaking some urine. and So you're OBGYN, Doc, you said, right? We've worked with this group called Safe Birth International.
00:22:12
Speaker
And they're a group of OBGYN people who work in Africa. And they have these kits that they make, Safe Birth kits. Yeah. And we made the pouches for them. And inside the kits, the kits, they had two chucks, you know, the chucks, the cloth.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah. They had two chucks so that the mom can deliver on a clean surface. They could put the baby in a clean surface. They had a sterile scapel or razor blade, had a clamp for the cord. They had gloves, they had masks, they had a little bar soap and a washcloth. They had everything for sterile delivery in this small little kit and they give it to the women during their last trimester and teach them how to use it. So ah no yeah no matter where they deliver, they got everything for a sterile birth. Or they give it to the midwives in the area or to a health care that deliver.
00:23:03
Speaker
So we just had this fabric that we couldn't use for pads, but they were perfect for the kits for them to stuff. And they're small, like 18 by 19. They're not, and they have all of this inside of this small little kit, compact,
00:23:18
Speaker
kit. yeah So we were very proud to ah partner with them and use some fabric that we couldn't use for the, it wasn't cotton, but the kit saves lives. It saves, reduces your mortality and maternal mortality, you know, having certain things to cut and clamp and and everything. So we were very proud to partner with them. That is really cool. That's so cool Well, I so appreciate what you're doing and I'm so grateful for your time today. Thank you for sharing with everybody who's listening and I hope that we can get more people to support what you're doing and join in because it's it's wonderful. And thanks for teaching us today. Also, I love that you brought the stories from the women and in rural Ethiopia. Just bringing those stories from women all around the world is so meaningful. So thank you for all that you're doing. And thank you so much for your time today. Thank you.