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Interact club members are essential workers in India

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Since 2018, members of the Interact Club of Lotus Valley International School in Noida, India, have been manufacturing menstrual pads for girls and women, using a process they perfected at their school outside of Delhi.

Measure, mold, compress

Working in a room dedicated to the project at the school, Pranet Kumar combines wood pulp and raw cotton in a 3-to-1 ratio.

Reyansh Pasari places the composite material into rectangular molds and compresses it into thin pads. “Menstrual hygiene is something we need to address as a whole community and not view it as solely a women’s problem,” he says.

Wrap, seal, sanitize

After a film is applied to prevent leakage, Arshita Raj wraps a layer of nonwoven cotton cloth around a pad, which is then sealed with a heat press.

Shaza Rizvi loads the pads into a machine to sterilize them before distribution.

Package, transport, distribute

Dhanvi Khandelwal (left) and Riya Dafauti load boxes of menstrual pads ready for distribution.

The club members give the pads to people at area orphanages and schools, in villages, and, as pictured here, at a community health center. Many girls and women can’t afford or aren’t aware of menstrual pads, instead using rags or other material they have on hand to absorb their menstrual blood, explains Saira Puri (left). When the material, like discarded paper, is not sterile, it could cause an infection. “If you just talk about it, you can actually save a woman’s life,” she says.

Club members produce an average of 350-400 pads per month to distribute to women and girls.

This story originally appeared in the March 2025 issue of Rotary magazine.

Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self.