A group of California students invented Flo, an easy-to-use menstruation kit for women and girls in developing countries
A new conquest arrives for women in developing countries. It is about Flo's, for an kit of washable and reusable pads created by Mariko Higaki Iwai, a design student in California for those living in poverty.
A small revolution concerning their uncomfortable and disabling monthly appointment with Menses. Yes, because it may not seem possible to us, yet in certain areas of the world that of menstruation is a real condemnation.
The problem, in many cases, concerns not only theaccess to reasonable prices to buy clean sanitary napkins, but also some taboo around menstruation itself, which sometimes leads girls not to go to school during their menstrual cycle or to abandon it altogether.
Thus, Mariko Higaki Iwai, half Japanese and half Spanish, together with Sohyun Kim and Tatijana Vasily of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, invented Flo's, practically a Easy-to-use portable kit for women and girls from developing countries.
The equipment consists of two bowls, a basket, a rope and a Tyvek bag (a non-woven fabric similar to paper but difficult to tear) that allows you to carry clean "sanitary pads" to school or work and then wash them at home.
Flo's bowls and string speed up drying times, thus also reducing the likelihood of transmitting infections. Basically, what the girls use is a kind of ball with strings that rotates to wash the sanitary pads inside. In addition, the designers claim that Flo's cap design reduces water and detergent use by half and that the drying basket can be covered with any piece of fabric, so that women and girls girls may hang everything in the sunlight while keeping everything covered.
The idea is to allow women and girls access to an essential product that makes life easier by allowing them to slowly change attitudes and dispel local taboos towards menstruation.
The kit costs only $ 3, but the designers intend to develop the product further to bring it to market, although they admit there is more than one difficulty.
"We realized - say - that the solution would not be as simple as giving them access to healthcare products. There are bigger challenges that need to be addressed, such as social norms and water and sewage networks. We wanted to design a tool that should give these girls more strength and create a sustainable system in the reuse of sanitary napkins ".
After being nominated as a finalist project in 2015 at James Dyson Award, the designers hope that Flo and other similar projects will give all women in the poorest countries a greater sense of control and pride in their lives. And we hope so too!
Germana Carillo
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