When You Buy Tampons, This Company Gives Pads To Girls In India

This will make periods suck a lot less for a lot of girls.

When a customer orders a month’s supply of tampons from menstrual hygiene company Cora, the company gives girls in need in India to get a month’s supply of sustainable pads, according to the website.

In India, an estimated 70 percent of women can’t afford sanitary napkins, according to a 2011 study. And almost one in four Indian girls drop out of school altogether once they start menstruating.

But Cora doesn’t just send products abroad that could potentially “undermine the local economy,” according to the company.

Instead, Cora partners with local organizations to supply the pads.

The company adds up its sales each month, and then buys the equivalent supply of pads from partners in India. The partners employ local women to manufacture the pads, paying them a living wage. The pads are then distributed to girls in local schools ― free of charge.

“Cora is driven by a desire to ensure all women have access to safe and healthy menstrual products,” co-founder Molly Hayward told Forbes.

Hayward was driven to start Cora after a trip to Kenya to teach English, when she noticed girls were skipping class during their periods, reports Teen Vogue.

“Girls would miss school during their periods because they couldn’t afford sanitary pads,” Hayward told Teen Vogue. “I was outraged ― and inspired.”

Hayward launched Cora in February, with the lofty goal of giving every girl “a safe and effective way to manage her period,” according to the website.

Cora functions as a monthly subscription. Customers select the number of tampons they want to get each month, the absorbency, and when to make payments ― monthly, quarterly or annually.

Cora is one of a number of menstrual hygiene companies that employ the one-for-one business model. Conscious Period, which is also an organic tampon company, donates a box of pads to homeless women in the U.S. for every box of tampons purchased.

While Cora currently focuses its efforts on supporting girls in India, the company hopes to one day see no woman or girl struggle to afford menstrual hygiene products.

“Our work will be done when every woman can use products that are good for her body and the planet,” Hayward told Forbes. “And when no girl or woman is disempowered by her biology.”