Confidence

Welcome to 2017! 

Apologies for the quietness on the blog front....our two directors Joshua and Sarah have each been very busy with some exciting news! Both families have welcomed little boys this year, Sarah's born in June and Joshua's in November. 

However, with Sarah's son now 6 months old and her family about to embark on a trip to India to check out the sanitary pad machines for Kids First (yes, it's finally happening - yay!) we thought it about time to finally get around to a blog post we had been mulling over for some time.....

Sanitary products....

Marketing is an interesting field. It can influcence a lot of popular culture, but is also shaped by the culture itself. I have found the marketing of sanitary products in New Zealand and Uganda fasinating, since the start of our obsession (in a healthy way!) over sanitary products.

Take New Zealand for example. We like to be active, our women want to be empowered, and we don't want something like a period to hold us back. Our products reflect this. Most significantly the "u" brand (think: it's all about you). They even have the #bebold on their website. How empowering is that?


Check out some of the other pics of the names of our brands below (even Libra, get this from Wikipedia: symbolised by a mythological creature with the head, wings and talons of an eagle and the hind legs of a lion. Sounds creepy, but powerful! Even the incontinence pads are called Confidence!

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Contrast this with Uganda, where products not only stereotype periods (7 days...what if your period is longer, shorter - are you normal?) but also remind your of the persistence (Always) and taboo subject of periods - I mean "Secrets", seriously!? I totally get that you might want it to be secret from some stranger on the street that you actually have your period right then and there, but in generally this should not be a secret or taboo topic in our society. Making it so opressess young girls who have to go through this experience alone and ill-educated about it. 

What are your thoughts? Do you think we influence branding of products, or do they influence us?

Follow us on our journey to finding these sanitary pad machines - we will be regularly posting on facebook and hopefully on here too, depending on the internet availability. Here's hoping they are suitable and affordable, so we can help break down the walls of taboo that hold our girls back!

God bless and Stay Free!