Student who sews period pads for refugees now leads 1,000 volunteers
She aims to help break the stigma and reduce period poverty in refugee communities
Last updated 2nd Dec 2021
A student who began sewing reusable period products for refugees during lockdown is now running a global network of 1,000 volunteers.
University of Bristol student Ella Lambert, 21, learned to stitch using YouTube videos during the first national lockdown.
She has since launched the Pachamama Project, which aims to end period poverty.
The languages student, from Chelmsford in Essex, started the not-for-profit group with university friend Oliwia Geisler in August last year.
Ella had wanted to work in refugee camps abroad in summer 2020, but when coronavirus restrictions forced her to stay at home she started sewing sustainable period products for women instead.
Since then, more than 30,000 patterned pads which come in discreet matching pouches have been made by over 1,000 volunteers in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and the US using donated materials.
Reducing period poverty in refugee communities
Ella recently visited a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, where she worked with local women who were able to distribute the products for a profit.
She said: "I was actually leading the distributions which was amazing. We have Pacha clubs, we're calling them, in Lebanon and Greece.
"That's when we have a group of women making them and then, for example, in Lebanon, they're selling them, but to NGOs, so they then give them away again to other refugees.
"So not only do those refugee women get to earn a bit of an income, but they also have a further impact of actually reducing period poverty in their community."
The project is named after the goddess of fertility Pachamama, a figure revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes.
Breaking the stigma around periods
Ella said the project was also linked to her personal experience with serious period pains and a desire to break the stigma associated with talking about them.
"I've always really struggled with period pain, like absolutely atrocious period pain which would mean that I'd have to miss out on school and cancel plans last minute," she said.
"So although I've been really lucky, and I've never had to experience period poverty as such, I do know what it's like to have to miss out on really important things and appointments because of my period.
"This seemed like a really easy way of combatting period poverty and making sure that people didn't have to deal with that because they had the products they needed that would last."
She said the project "went from zero to 100" this year after initially making the pads with Ms Geisler and her mother.
"It's really escalated from a little university project from a kitchen table to a global network," she said.
Ella also said she hopes to get schoolchildren involved in making the pads and bring conversations about period poverty to their kitchen tables - and help end the stigma.