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As we approach the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, we are flooded with more light as the days are at their longest, the nights short. It also marks the start of summer. If you find yourself in Europe, the summer solstice is a time for celebrating the fertility of life that flourishes under abundant sunshine. For us in India, well, let's just say we are feeling the heat and the impulse is definitely to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n, perhaps more in tune with our sisters in the southern hemisphere who are experiencing the winter solstice. Wherever you are, we hope you can take this cyclical milestone as an opportunity to pause and reflect on where you are at in your life cycle and take a moment to appreciate the journey you have been on since the equinox in March - all what has come to pass and all what is still fermenting in the life within and around you.
Reflecting on Eco Femme’s journey these last few months, we are becoming more outward bound as we are increasingly engaging face to face in educational sessions, trainings and public events. Read on to learn about some of our highlights and we will be sharing links to an inspirational podcasts to help you deepen into your journey of befriending your cycle. We are also excited to share a special edition offer of earth inspired henna pads and an overview of our social and environmental impacts over the last year including the exciting milestone of having distributed over 1 million cloth pads since we began!
We hope you enjoy our newsletter offering and wish you a happy solstice season, wherever you may be! 🌞
With love, Team Eco Femme
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We distributed 1 million pads!!
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This means 75
million disposable napkins that didn't pollute our earth. How did we do this? They've all been distributed: • To our customers in India and in 25 countries around the world, • Through our Pads for Sisters programme that distributes discounted pads to women from low-income backgrounds in India and, • Free pads to adolescent girls from low-income backgrounds in India through our Pad for Pad programme.
We want to thank all our domestic and international retailers,
partners, and ambassadors for helping us achieve this incredible
milestone! 🙏
We are ecstatic
about this achievement and hope we'll be able to reach out and empower
so many, many more women and girls around the world in the coming years! |
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Henna Cloth Pads Available till June 26th only |
Inspired by the colours of nature, we are excited to share this Special Edition range of cloth pads available from panty liners to night pads. Henna is a plant widely used for body art, to dye skin, hair and fingernails, and is also used to dye fabric.
The Henna block printed fabric used for these pads is made by skilled artisans from Andhra Pradesh (India) through
a labour intensive and precise process involving many stages of
preparations.
The art of block printing and use of natural dyes is
diminishing at a fast pace. By using this fabric we wish -in our small
way- to keep this beautiful work alive and to support the livelihood of the people who earn their living from this endangered craftsmanship
We hope you'll enjoy this amazing fabric too!
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Team retreat The power of eco sisterhood |
At Eco Femme, we value eco sisterhood and believe that nurturing a healthy workspace comes from paying attention to and caring for who we are intrinsically. Monthly team retreats have thus become much looked forward to events as they truly nourish us individually and as a team. In April, we devoted a whole day to deepening our inquiry into our personal experience of embodiment and explored the connection between how cultural narratives impact this experience. As catalysts for this inquiry, we watched the film "Lipstick under my burkha" and reflected on what it triggered inside. We then had a full group sharing on the question " Where am I stuck in life/what is holding me back and where would I like to find more ease in life?". To close the day, we meditated following the guidance of Tara Brach using a practice called RAIN. The acronym RAIN – Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture – guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to difficult emotions. We invite you to try the meditation yourself to support you in taking care of difficult emotions that may arise from time to time. In spite of having such a culturally diverse team (we are from 7 different countries) we were very touched by the universality of these themes and the power that women who courageously and authentically share their experience can have to elicit insight and deepen connection among the group. |
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Timbaktu collective
A new partnership
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With a vision to support rural communities to take control of their lives, govern themselves, and live in social, gender, and ecological harmony while maintaining a sustainable lifestyle, Timbaktu Collective have come forth with a number of initiatives that have positively impacted the lives of people in Anantpur (Andhra Pradesh, India) and its surroundings for over three decades. When Mary Vattamattom, one of the founders, and her daughter, Molly, visited Eco Femme in March 2022 and expressed their interest to introduce sustainable menstruation in their community, we jumped right into the opportunity of collaboration and mutual learning. Timbaktu not only shares the spirit of sustainability with us, but has also paved a way for empowering women through holistic approaches in livelihood. In April, Lakshmy visited their campus in Andhara Pradesh and offered a Training of Trainers in how to facilitate menstrual heath education sessions. About 20 women - staff and Self Help Group leaders participated in the intense 2 day programme. It culminated in the trainee participants demonstrating their learnings during a session that they delivered to their women SHG members. The training and the practice sessions was engaging and was enjoyed by all and participants who are now eager to take the project forward and spread the message of sustainable menstruation in their communities. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Timbaktu Collective as the collaboration takes shape in the month ahead.
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We are so happy to have our Kalvi back after her maternity leave!!
Kalvi has been with us for many years - after working on sales and marketing, she enthusiastically jumped into menstrual education and became our local Pad For Pad Facilitator. She also trains our Pad for Pad partners in how to conduct holistic menstrual health education and guides them in impact assessment.
Here she is conducting a local session at New Era Secondary School. She is a powerhouse of embodied passion in action!
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Going deeper into our cycle
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Workshop to "Explore Your Power"
Learn how to turn your period into a super power with Lucy Peach. She's the incredible
Australian "Period Preacher" folk singer song-writer, TED talker,
actress, sexual health educator, and author of the book "Period Queen" (and if that intro doesn't spike your curiosity, we don't know
what will...).
In her online course called "Explore Your Power", you'll learn how to harness the power of your period. This transformational course takes a
deep dive into how the different phases of the cycle can work for you and how you can hack them to turn them into a strength!
Explore the challenges and the benefits of each phase with her, and learn how to
nurture and channel your powers to realise your potential.
Lucy kindly gave us an exclusive promo code ecofemme for you to get a very generous discount of 70% valid until 22 July 2022 only.
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How Cycle Awareness Cultivates Embodied Activism? By Ruby May.
We loved this powerful and empowering podcast! Take one hour off, grab a coffee or a tea, make yourself comfy in a cosy place and listen to this fascinating conversation!
Hosted by the Red School, earth-lover, truth-seeker, edge-dweller and mischief-maker Ruby May, talks about the revolutionary power within the menstrual cycle.
Topics covered include: > How cultivating an intimacy with the rhythm and change of your menstrual cycle allows you to be an embodied activist - a change-maker who is rooted in cyclical intelligence.
> How to work with your menstrual cycle as a tool for identifying internalised oppression and how Capitalism lives in your body, for example; by being addicted to endless productivity, feeling rushed all the time, and prioritising your head over your body wisdom.
> The connection between revolution - or evolution - and community. As Ruby says "ideas like 'the world would be a better place if we tapped into the wisdom of our menstrual cycle' - don't create change. Bringing them into connection does.
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Read our latest blogs
Last month, we devoted our focus on social media to cycle awareness and cycle tacking.
We also published a few in depth blog articles on this topic.
Firstly, we shared a 2 part blog series about "How to track your cycle and why it matters!".
In part 1, you'll understand the benefits that can be gained from cycle tracking and how it awakens self-knowledge. |
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In Part 2, we explore the differences between some of the more popular cycle tracking free apps |
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Our Wikipedia page is finally live, thanks to the determination and hard work of our ambassador Muskan!! Publishing under Wikipedia is not easy due to the rigour to verify every claim and statement that is required for companies. So BIIIIIG BIG thanks Muskan for your perseverance! ❤ |
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Welcome back Kalvi and Ranjini!! They both were on maternity leave for some months and recently re-joined the team again at our new office! Meet their beautiful daughters - 🙂 Kayal is 15 months and Kavina is 8 months. Aren't they the cutest...?! 😍
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