Why We're Giving to TheCup.org
Purpose Behind The Robe Lives
We give to TheCup.org with every Robe purchase.
The Cup empowers adolescent girls, provides basic needs, keeps them healthy, and keeps them in school. As a company, we want to contribute to creating a better world for everyone.
We feel that the best way for us to do that is to provide a strong foundation for impoverished young women to stand on which enables them to build a better future for themselves.
-A&A
The Problems We're Addressing
Limited exposure to information about biology
Many underprivileged girls lack information about the most basic functions of their bodies. They don’t know why women menstruate, how one becomes pregnant, nor are they aware of sexually transmitted diseases. Unwanted and rampant unprotected sex continues to result in unplanned teen-pregnancies, improvised abortions, extended sickness, contributing to the explosion of orphaned children; even young mothers being banished from their homes, together with their newborns.
No menstrual solution
One of the biggest problems faced by girls who grow up in poverty is the lack of proper and hygienic solutions when they have their period. If their parents don’t have money to buy pads they end up using anything at hand like cloth, leaves, tissue, or even pieces of mattress. The most tragic of instances we’ve heard are young girls selling their bodies for menstrual pads.
Missing School
Using substitute menstrual products is extremely dangerous to the health of these girls, and also causes many of them to miss several days of school every month. Some even end up dropping out of school for good, completely missing out on an education solely for being female.
The Cup’s Solutions That Your Purchase is Empowering
Menstrual Cups keep girls in school
The menstrual cup is a long-term sustainable and hygienic solution. If properly taken care of it can last for 10 years. So far, in Kenya 5000 girls aged 11-14 have been given a menstrual cup for free from The Cup. Those who have started using the cup confess not missing any day of school since, are participating in sports and are not afraid of staining their clothes while playing or sitting in the class room. They feel free and healthy.
Education
The Cup provides four training sessions to cup recipients that include sex ed, the reproductive system, relationships, puberty, unsafe abortions, HIV/STDs and prostitution.
Our Cup trainers are role models
The Cup trainers all come from a similar background as the girls they train and many have experienced the same challenges. This creates an understanding and the girls are more likely to be able to bond and open up. The trainings are designed to be intimate, allowing and fun and the trainers are seen as role models and big sisters - someone they can confide in and also look at as an inspiration for their own future.
The importance of saying NO!
In most parts of the world girls grow up disempowered due to gender inequality. In Kenya 60 % of underprivileged women think men have the right to beat their wives. To fight abuse and help girls build their self-esteem, The Cup talks about human and reproductive rights to both girls and boys. Girls’ self-confidence is also strengthened by a learning how to defend themselves and act if in danger of rape.
Boys, parents, teachers – the environment surrounding the girls are involved
To achieve lasting change, we believe that everyone in the community needs to understand the challenges the girls go through. The Cup conducts an informational meeting with parents and seeks their approval for giving cups to their daughters. Boys are trained as well by our male role model teachers in similar subjects like the girls. Teachers and informal leaders are informed as well.
The Cup Helpline - girls should never feel alone
Many girls grow up alone without an adult they feel comfortable talking to or confiding in. This is sometimes the root to many of their problems. The Cup trainers share their phone numbers during the trainings so that any of the girls may reach out to them. We also have a 24 hr anonymous helpline where girls can call and text to ask questions or even just to talk about their problems. All of our trainers are educated in peer counseling.
The Cup’s mission is to reach 1 million girls around the world with life skill trainings and a menstrual cup, and along with your purchase, The Robe Lives is going to help them get there.