Upcoming: TABOO’s Launch Party @ MOD.

What does this Thursday night look like for you? Whatever’s on, forget it. We’ve got a better idea to drown your Week 4 blues. At UniSA’s very own MOD., TABOO Sanitary Products are hosting something for you to feel good about.

There’ll be glasses of bubbles on arrival, a set by Young Offenders, canapés, cake, a dance floor, and the chance to enjoy UNLIMITED local wine with the purchase of a $10 wristband. All proceeds go towards fighting period poverty around the world.

Wait, periods … poverty … party … sorry?! TABOO co-founders Isobel Marshall and Eloise Hall believe periods deserve a celebration each and every month. Menstruation is, after all, a pretty important part of a female’s fertility – without it we wouldn’t be here. But sadly, cultural stigma in many parts of the world tell a very different story; one of shame, injustice and indignity. 

With the taboo comes a lack of access to basic pads and tampons. In many situations, girls and women must use anything they can find, from old cloths to newspaper, and kitchen sponges to cardboard toilet rolls. Often these improvised ‘pads’ are cleaned and reused in unsanitary conditions, and become a breeding ground for infection-causing bacteria and diseases.

But this is only the beginning of the problem.

According to UNESCO, 100 million girls of high-school age across the world are out of school, and periods play a big part in that. They may have a sanitary-related infection, nowhere safe to change whatever they’re using, or simply too much shame to show that they’re bleeding.

THE FACTS

• In Sierra Leone, girls miss around 50 school days every year due to their period.

• 65% of women in Kenya cannot afford sanitary products. 

• In India, 70% of all reproductive diseases are caused by poor menstrual hygiene.

• 1 in 10 girls in the UK have been unable to afford proper sanitary care. 

• 48% of girls in Iran believe menstruation is a disease. 
  

Isobel tells Verse, ‘knowing the stories and statistics – as well as a solution – we felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility, and courage, to start TABOO.’ 

Eloise and Isobel’s solution is the creation of TABOO Sanitary Products – their own brand of pads and tampons. Inspired by other social enterprises including Thankyou and Who Gives A Crap – who respectively donate 100% and 50% of their net profit to sustainable development projects – TABOO will donate 100% of its net profit to organisations that provide sanitary care and education to those in need. Their first beneficiary will be One Girl, a Melbourne-based organisation dedicated to girls and women in Sierra Leone and Uganda. 

Not only is TABOO one of the few companies to make organic and eco-friendly cotton pads and tampons, it’s ‘a movement designed to unite women across the globe through their shared experiences of menstruation.’ Eloise, Isobel and the rest of the team behind TABOO have turned a simple necessity into an opportunity for women to tangibly support those who need it – and that deserves a celebration. 

It all kicks off this Thursday night at MOD., and Auntie Flow’s organised quite the show. 

Tickets ‘are pay what you want’ (with the minimum being $25), and they include:

• Live Band (Young Offenders)
• A glass of sparkling Bird in Hand Pinot Noir
• Nibbles, canapés and cake
• A presentation from the TABOO Team
• The opportunity to buy a $10 pass for UNLIMITED WINE (Bird in Hand, Silent Noise, Marble Hill and Landhaus)
• A few more good things – which you’ll have to see for yourself 

Time: 6pm 

Date: Thursday 22nd August

Location: MOD. 

Dress: Cocktail

Tickets: Here

Side note: Yes, plenty of guys will be there and no, it won’t be a girls-only gig. 

TABOO pads, tampons and tees are also available to purchase at https://tabooau.co/shop/.

Words by Annabel Bowles

Images supplied by TABOO

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