Needlelady:


You don't want to see how other companies will queue up to harvest from this fraudulent business practices in due course. Perhaps, others will use this method to  infilterate the high moral culture in Africa by offering them peanuts in return.  Don't come complaining to me when this tactics will take its stronghold and shatter our moral structure at home.

High Moral Culture exists in a Continent that is a cesspool; the one place on this planet where the worst evil on the planet can be seen on a daily basis and out in the view of all?? Genocides, brutal Slavery going on today, Corruption from highest to lowest places while over 50 thousand children die out like flies each month from hunger alone Do you really live on the same planet that we all live in??  I mean put together all those who have been maimed in the name of morality ( God's Great Law) to those who have been brutally executed in the name of holiness( racism in sudan and even in rwanda and now in kenya and so many other places across africa). Hunger in Somalia where even UN workers who want to help provide people with food are being attacked and you think this is HIGH MORALITY?? Look at your people in Zimbabwe with their high morals. High Morals have driven over 3 million people to go to neighbouring countries to live as beggars rather than continue to live in zimbabwe. 1000' of children in Uganda walk so many miles each night, far from their own parents and families to find safe places to sleep each night. Some of them sleep in small places on top of each other cause they do not want to be turned to child soldiers or sex slaves, and you believe this is high morality?? High morality is the reason why thousands of children still die each month from diseases that cures have been available for, for over 30 years now. Children still get polio and even die each year from malaria related cases when we all know that this should not be so and you say we have High morality in Africa??  High morality in a country where my childhood friend was poisoned by someone who did not like her and a cousin of mine died like a fly from an infection that he could have easily been cured of if he had been allowed to leave the country !!! WOW
 
1) Unicef has been selling cards to raise money to help children in Africa for decades.
 
2)Oprah used her show and name to raise some of the money she used to build the schools she built in South Africa last year or two ago and you do know that it also propelled to the top ranks on the list of philantropists in the world today.
 
3) Warren Buffet used his move last year to get people to notice him .

4) Coca Cola, 7 up and the many companies we grew up knowing in Nigeria have been doing this; using this means to get people to buy there products while raising money for causes and suddenly it is evil when procter and gamble does exactly the same?? come on!!!
 
IT IS CALLED FUND RAISING AND ADVERTISING/MARKETING AND there is no law against companies selling products as way of raising money to help fund causes. Society understands this.
Since you have better laws, I still ask you how much have you raised for these people.

It is easy to sit in the comfort of your own home drinking your own PROCTER AND GAMBLE (or any other make) made juice in the comfort of your own home, comfortably wearing your hanes underwear or of any brand that was advertised to you, while pontificating when it comes to what others should be exposed to or not. I say go out there and prove you are not just full of hot air.

debosky:

First of all. . .how do you know they are doing 'as much as they can'? Are you their spokesperson or are you a participant/agent in distributing the materials? I am always skeptical of these 'helping hand' nonsense when it may simply be a guise to appear good in order to sell more and possibly write off someone's vacation in Zanzibar as part of CSR to 'donate' sanitary pads.

Secondly, your attempt to frame this as a 'what have you done' argument is deviating from the issue - Whether or not I or anyone else on this thread have/haven't spent a kobo to 'help' these people, it does not remove/add from one's opinion on the subject matter - it is highly distasteful to me and a disservice to the good work many charitable organisations and individuals are doing out there. It is an attempt to guilt-trip people into making you rich (by buying your products) by telling them it 'helps' someone. Unadulterated BS if you ask me.

If you are interested in tooting your horn about how much you are 'doing to help' and what others are not 'doing' find another thread for that.

Feel free to pat them on the back all you want, but I find it unacceptable.

Actually, since your opinion is based on nothing but a selfish approach to analysing the works of these groups, I see every reason to ask you how you arrived at it being
1) UNETHICAL
2) NOT in good taste

Since this would mean you have made yourself the judge of what is ethical and what is of good taste. But as in the real world you are not, I have every right to ask you what you have done compared to what they are doing. I do not have to be a spokes person to understand that as long as you are not involved and you do not have actual information on what is going on with the project or not, you can not make judgements on the actual work itself or even the ad being ethical or not. Here is a clue for you
 

If Mr A claims to know what is ethical or of good taste, Mr B has every right to ask by what standard or rule. If Mr A does not produce these rules, then Mr B is to be skeptical of what Mr A has to offer in the lines of what is ethical or what is of good taste. And so, until Mr A provides some form of information to back up such claim, Mr B has every right to ask what Mr A has done to compare this to What X is doing, in order to understand where Mr A may actually be coming from.

So in this case, either you start tooting your horn or something about how you are doing some work and how you came to the conclusion that what the company is doing is UNETHICAL and NOT IN GOOD Taste, I say you are the one who needs to find another thread where you can feel free to pontificate all you want.

http://travellingspouse..com/2007/11/tampax-and-always-for-whose-benefit.html


Here is a blog by someone else on this issue , 

TAMPAX AND ALWAYS- FOR WHOSE BENEFIT ?

Some girls in sub-Saharan Africa have a hard time being educated. Even if they are considered worthy of it, their families may not be able to afford the fees, or the absence of their work at home. When they do manage to attend school they may find there is little or no sanitation, and this causes many to skip school if they are menstruating, or giving up altogether.

The Plan International project I mentioned in an earlier post addresses this problem specifically, with toilet blocks designed in consultation with girls, and getting to the root of the problem. School attendance has improved sufficiently for the project to be rolled out to the rest of the country.
Two days ago Procter & Gamble FemCare brands announced a similar program in Kenya.

Working with HERO, the Protecting Futures program brings together the brands' global resources to help make a positive impact on these young girls by improving access to feminine hygiene products as well as education and health services, said Michelle Vaeth, Protecting Futures Program Director for P&G.

The program will bring puberty education, traveling health educators, nutritious feeding programs, educational support services, a pad distribution program, and significant construction projects to nine schools in the first year.

All very fine until I reached the pad distribution program, and I started to wonder if Tampax or Always are really suited to a life of poverty or near-poverty in rural sub-Saharan Africa. The costs of continuing provision will be high and who will cover those costs when the girls leave school? How will they manage when the facilities provided at the school are no longer available to them?

I would have been happier if they were providing mooncups which are much safer, re-usable and last for years.

Yep, instead of Procter and Gamble, we should have BOOTS giving exactly the same to the kids. LMAO!!! following this logic, what is the difference I just had to add this line here.  What about the cost of this and the potential hygiene problems??

, “because of potential hygiene issues, using a reusable menstrual product that gets inserted into the body requires additional education and “processing” such as cleaning the cup with boiled water. Additionally, we are culturally sensitive to potential taboos with young girls using an insertable product.”

I can't help feeling that there is little altruism in Procter & Gamble's efforts, and that they are hoping to turn the girls into paying customers. And it starts to sound a tiny bit like the free samples of baby milk powder distributed even where it is ill-advised, just to stimulate a market.

I suppose it's not surprising that the announcement appears in CNN Money.

Yep, these people are too poor to afford pads and so their is really no need for them to be given pads even if to help them now and hopefully help them secure a better future in the process and be able to afford pads then, even if chances are high they would not only buy PROCTER AND GAMBLE brands,  nice!!! LMAO!!!

A Not-So-Simple Plan to Keep African Girls in School

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/giving/12GIRLS.html


It is a cute name for an acute problem: the stains that African girls often endure when they are menstruating and the rags or camel’s skin they use for protection fail. “Girls who can’t manage their period stay home, and that is affecting their education,” said Michelle J. Vaeth, communications director for FemCare, the Procter & Gamble unit that makes Always pads and Tampax tampons.

So FemCare is tackling the problem head-on. In March, it inaugurated Protecting Futures, a program to first build bathrooms, then educate teachers and finally distribute free pads, in hopes of keeping African girls in school.

Protecting Futures is not FemCare’s first foray into Africa. For two years, it has been working with the Girl Child Network, a nonprofit, to give its pads to schoolgirls in Kenya, and it is compiling data to quantify the effect that the program has had on attendance.

Yet skeptics abound. Esther Duflo, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says that absentee rates are the same for boys and girls in much of Africa, and that programs like providing free uniforms and books seem to increase attendance. “What’s keeping children from school is the costs of attending,” she said.

But studies by the Forum for African Women Educationalists, a nongovernmental organization, seem to support FemCare’s hypothesis.

“Girls will stay home rather than be embarrassed,” said Faith Macharia, the national director of the forum’s Kenya chapter. She said the studies showed that “cumulatively, they can lose a whole month of schooling each year.”

Protecting Futures, which started its first venture with two schools in Namibia, is the latest entry in Live, Learn and Thrive, Procter’s three-year-old program in which managers of many brands find ways to better the lot of children in poor countries.

[b]Its Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program has been providing sachets of its Pur water-purifying powder at cost throughout Africa. Its Safeguard soap has provided the product as well as hygiene education to children in Pakistan and China. Pampers has teamed with Unicef on a promotion in which it donated a dose of tetanus vaccine in Africa for every package of diapers sold in Britain. [b]
 

Out of fear of capitalism, we should tell these kids not to drink the clean water offered them but have them continue drinking from dirty sources instead. No need for them to think about hygiene and cleanliness at all since they are poor and do not need to care about such ,  (snickers!!!) LMAO!!
 
I guess the morals in China and pakistan are not as high as those in Africa. LMAO!!!

Protecting Futures may be the most complicated project Procter has undertaken yet. FemCare cannot distribute pads unless the girls have private places to change them — so it is building bathrooms. The girls need clean water for hygiene, so in one school it is piping water from two miles away. It built dormitories at a school heavily attended by children from nomadic tribes.

It also needs to find ways to dispose of the pads, in some cases for practical reasons, in other cases for cultural ones. In some parts of Africa, people believe that one’s blood can be used to cast a spell, so girls would fear leaving bloodied pads exposed. Procter will probably install small, sealed incinerators near the new bathrooms, and train teachers to burn the pads.

Procter also plans to send nurses or doctors to the schools four times a year to troubleshoot health problems, provide health education and distribute pads. The Protecting Futures staff is working with local groups to teach girls more about puberty, even when that means training male teachers to address a subject that is often considered off limits.

“Discussions about sexual maturation are just not commonplace in African society,” said Ms. Macharia of the forum. “The parents hope the teachers do it, the teachers hope the parents do it, and the girls wind up thinking that menstruation is associated with doing something wrong.”

Protecting Futures knew it would face problems carrying out its projects. Gregory S. Allgood, director of the children’s drinking-water program, has been working in African communities for several years, and enlisted some of his own contacts among philanthropic and government groups there to help the new program. (They pointed out the blood-spell connection.) And he made sure that the FemCare people sought the aid of local leaders in schools.

“In Kenya alone, you need 20 partners,” he said. “The culture in rural areas is different from Nairobi, which is again different from the north, where so many of the Somali women are.”

In Kenya, FemCare is working with the Ministry of Education, tribal leaders, Unicef and Ms. Macharia’s group. It is also working with Hero, a school-based campaign that the United Nations Association of the United States of America, a nonprofit group, runs to assist children in AIDS-ravaged parts of sub-Saharan Africa.


Yet Protecting Futures has run into snags beyond the hurdles it had anticipated. FemCare got into a mini-brouhaha with a council in Namibia when it neglected to register the location of its workers’ camp site. Protecting Futures is on hold there until the issue is resolved. Meanwhile, it has sped up its program to introduce puberty education in South Africa.

“We’ve made a five-year commitment to expand this program in Africa,” said Ms. Vaeth of FemCare. “So from a long-range timing standpoint, we aren’t missing a beat.”

The question, of course, is what’s in it for Procter(THE DEVIL)?

[b] Now let's read what EVIL ANSWER PROCTER AND GAMBLE will give[b]

A great deal, marketing experts say. For one, girls who use free pads today can turn into paying customers when they grow out of the school programs. They could persuade their mothers and aunts to use the products.

“When you need to change a culture, it’s good strategy to start with the younger generation,” said Jill Avery, an assistant professor of marketing at the Simmons School of Management.

And the program sits well with the Kenyan government, which has cut tariffs on Procter’s sanitary pads. Lisa Jones Christensen, an assistant professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, who is familiar with Procter’s philanthropy programs, says that Procter receives special treatment when its containers hit Kenya’s docks.

“No one is saying, ‘Just unload the pads, leave the boxes of Tide,’ ” she said. “This program is giving P&G a license to operate in Africa for all its products.”

There is a payback in the developed world, too. “The idea of keeping an African girl in school resonates strongly with our consumers,” Ms. Vaeth said.

OH THE HORROR!!!!

@ debosky

Granted people are poor in Africa who cannot afford sanitary towels, but why use it to guilt-trip people into buying a particular product? I believe that form of advertising is ethically questionable. If Always/Procter & Gamble wanted to do some CSR or humanitarian work, they should not link it to the sales of a product. They can ask for donations or set up a trust fund.

The percentage or fraction of your cost being used to 'help' these girls (virtually securing future customers for their products) is not stated, how certain are we that this 'good deed' will help? It is a cheap gimmick to make people feel they are ''helping the poor Africans' by patronizing always.

This has little to do with African leaders - the government's job is not to provide sanitary towels to its citizens. I think it is unethical; any such attempt to help or source for charity donations should be done strictly separated from their primary business.

this issue is about the quality of life, Debosky.

its not the govt's job to provide sanitary pads for the citizens, but  it would be a good thing if the citizens could afford some dignity in their lives. A simple dignity like being able to buy sanitary pads goes a long way for people who are too poor to buy such things, normally.

I'm sure you personally would never date anyone who used rags during their period or couldnt afford sanitary pads. Nor would you offer to supply a girl with such things.

Since a lot of the national cake goes abroad to maintain the higher standard of living, then people abroad should be reminded of the need in other places. The US alone gulps an excessively large amount of the world's resources, while Africa on the other hand gets extremely little of the finished product.

Pads to save or trash Africa

http://www.geocities.com/mytafadhali/mommypads.htm

Environmental blogger Deanna Duke, while channel-surfing five weeks ago, happened upon a commercial for Always pads. It showed a sad-looking African girl who couldn’t go to school during her period because she didn’t have “feminine protection”. Thanks to a new $1.4-million campaign by Procter & Gamble, the ad explained, her village was receiving disposable pads so she and other girls could go to school.

“There was something that didn’t sit right with me,” Duke told the Straight in a phone interview from Seattle on March 11. “It struck me, what was the environmental impact of doing this? What do they do with all these things?…And what happens in five years [after the girls graduate]?”

I am going to take a wild guess and say this person may consider it more ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY to leave these girls to their fate rather than help them with problems that may be in their way of getting a good education and living a better life, LMAO!!!

Sustainability in pads and tampons is a question Duke struggles with locally. Last year, she ran a “Diva Cup Challenge” on her blog, encouraging her North American readers—and herself—to switch from disposable tampons to an environmental alternative. In parts of Africa, she’s found since seeing the ad, the problem is compounded. Open landfills create health hazards, and plastics incineration leads to toxic air. Plus, she pointed out, P & G benefits from the campaign because it makes the company look benevolent to North American consumers while it’s developing markets for disposables in Africa.
That’s how her new charity, goods4girls.org, came about. It’s working with Vancouver-based Lunapads, a five-woman collective that makes reusable pads and has been donating kits to African girls for more than five years.

yet another Business to the rescue , lol. Oh the evil named Capitalism !!!! Notice how she did not jump to helping until she heard another was helping, only not doing it the right way ( according to her)

“I’m hoping people will know the real deal when they see it,” Lunapads cofounder Madeline Shaw told the Straight. “I think we should give P & G their due. They’ve brought the issue to a mainstream consciousness.…But it’s not a sustainable solution.”

On the phone from P & G headquarters in Cincinnati, Protecting Futures program director Michelle Vaeth said it is sustainable; in fact, she said, it’s necessary in places where there isn’t adequate water for washing reusable pads. She also noted that P & G is lobbying African governments to drop the “luxury” taxes on pads and tampons so they’ll be more affordable. She added that the pads are part of a larger campaign, which includes building washrooms and incineration facilities at schools, and setting up dormitories

P & G’s Protecting Futures is one of several Africa-focused corporate “philanthropy” campaigns that have cropped up over the past few years. Product Red, which donates a portion of profits from the sale of branded products to the purchase of antiretroviral drugs for Africans, includes the Gap, Converse, Dell, Motorola, Hallmark, and others. Last month, the Swedish clothing retailer H&M launched Fashion Against AIDS in its 1,300 stores. The idea is that North American consumer choices will lead to improved conditions in the developing world. A common criticism is that relatively little money is donated while the companies reap a cornucopia of profits and good publicity.

With $76 billion in global sales, P & G’s 2007 net earnings were $10.3 billion, according to its financial statements listed on PG.com. That’s double what it made in 2003. Given that P & G makes Pampers, Iams, Duracell, Pantene, Febreeze, and other common household brands, the mega-revenues are not surprising.

But developing countries have other alternatives to P & G aid. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee set up a sanitary napkin production centre staffed by adolescent girls, according to Menstrual Hygiene and Management in Developing Countries: Taking Stock, a 2004 report by Mumbai-based social-development consultants Sowmyaa Bharaswaj and Archana Patkar. The authors, who found many similar projects in the developing world, hope the report leads to sanitation practices that respond to women’s needs, in environmentally-sustainable ways.

Needlelady, this is a site for you should you want to use your needle skills to provide "REUSABLE PADS" for these ladies instead of having Procter and Gamble do the work, LMAO!!

http://www.geocities.com/mytafadhali/mommypads.htm

Put your needle and your sewing skills to work already and talk to me when you have sent a couple of them , LMAO!!! Get to SEWING WOMAN!!!

It's funny how Kobojunkie keeps browsing for pros of this utopian business charity without posting the cons? Your argument is so lopsided.

Needlelady:

It's funny how Kobojunkie keeps browsing for pros of this utopian business charity without posting the cons? Your argument is so lopsided.

Did you even bother to spend time reading any of those articles before jumping to post a response?? Why did I post my opinions on each if they are so PRO??

First of all Kobo

for someone who seems to be irritated when people misread his posts or impute meanings to what he says, you have a real knack of doing the same thing.

you have already concluded the 'reason behind my opinion'? You must be a mind reader as well as being prescient.

Pray tell who is the judge of the ethics of a particular thing except the person viewing it? Obviously you have a problem comprehending what I wrote so let me restate it here: I believe companies should SEPARATE any charitable activities from their PRIMARY BUSINESS. In MY VIEW combining both is unethical and leaves many grey areas for abuse and mismanagement while creating an impression of 'doing good'. Is that good enough a reason for you?

I said it is in 'bad taste' - obviously that is the TASTE of the campaign to me, another personal completely valid point of view, regardless of what you think.

What is the 'information' I need about the project? Are they spending even HALF of the $1.4m of the campaign to 'help' the poor girls in Africa? You are obviously quite taken in by them already, no need to argue that. You may believe that 'any action' including dubious ones are acceptable, but I do not.

The point here is not really about whether they carry out some token gesture to elicit some pity, it goes down to the real intent. P&G can do whatsoever they want to from their $10.3b profits without trying to wind people up. I am not against their profitability, but don't try to fool people that you NEED them to buy your products to do something.

@ tpia

I wouldn't date someone who used cloth tampons? What do you think I do - I go on a date and ask for a girl's tampon history?

How do you know if I would offer to supply or not? You don't even know anything about what I do or don't do.

I agree that it is a matter of dignity and a matter the World should be concerned about, but the MANNER of this appeal/help appears dubious to me and aimed at creating a false facade that the company truly cares when its just trying to milk sympathy to make profits.

I am not against the actions themselves, many companies carry out social acts, but by tying it to someone buying your products before you will do something? I have a problem with that. Either you do it as a corporate mission yourselves or don't bother.

Bullfrog Energy in Ontario donates 10% of its profits to NGO's, not by luring consumers by showing pitiable pictures, It just does it! Other examples abound, and those are the kinds of initiatives I believe in not this one.

Debosky, I totally agree with the points you raised on the board, and somehow, I am kind of caught in the middle between the motives of Procter and Gamble on if their decision is purely humanitarian or driven by corporate profits. The same tactics are adopted by some companies too in the USA. Like during the Breast cancer awareness period, you would hear of companies like Avon (I think) and at least several others getting involved and promising to donate some proceeds from the sales of their product into breast cancer research. (Read the criticism here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_ribbon#Critical_movements). One of the corporate executives of Estee Lauder, Evelyn Lauder is a breast cancer survivor.

Other companies have delved into worthy causes, like raising awareness of domestic violence in the community, and sometimes, an appeal is made, usually by patronizing their products because, it will be used to fund such programs. Now, what are the motives? A move characterized by genuine PR or a false move motivated to drum up profits for the companies. Well, as the adage says, "Half a loaf is better than none". And the girls lacking sanitary pads in African will most likely agree with me.

Thought provoking question though@debosky.

Thanks Ndipe for showing you can actually think through what I have posted.

I am not against the 'half loaf' they are giving, but on an ethical level, is it commensurate with what they are spending to advertise or what they are making from these so called 'charity initiatives'?

In my opinion, let a separate NGO be funded transparently to whatever extent P&G wants, without these sales pitches, and then see what will happen. American Idol asks people to give for a good cause, it doesn't say until you watch our show, we won't do anything. I do not support these mixed business+charity approaches for reasons I've outlined. Some people will benefit no doubt, but I fear this is more about corporate profits and milking people's sympathy rather than any genuine drive to make a difference. I honestly hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.

In my opinion, let a separate NGO be funded transparently to whatever extent P&G wants, without these sales pitches, and then see what will happen. American Idol asks people to give for a good cause, it doesn't say until you watch our show, we won't do anything. I do not support these mixed business+charity approaches for reasons I've outlined. Some people will benefit no doubt, but I fear this is more about corporate profits and milking people's sympathy rather than any genuine drive to make a difference. I honestly hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.

ditto

P & G already works with NGO's to do the work. If you would all only spend time researching the work, you would find out that is what is happening. All it is doing with the AD is raising awareness and at the same time raising funds and marketing itself to people. If you read the article I posted above, you would understand that but I guess it is a matter of what one wants to believe instead.  American idol actually uses it's show to advertise it's involvement in giving as well. If you do not watch the american idol show, chances are you would not know of the idol gives back giving program, and by the way, it has the american idol logo on the side of the screen everytime you are viewing the work being done. Even though American idol does not actually manufacture products, fact remains that it still uses it's idol give back project for marketing the American idol show( which happens to be America's idol's product). Same concept,  Advertising, Marketing and fundraising all in the name of selling a product ( AMERICAN idol) and helping people as well. Same thing P and G is doing. Same thing Oprah does. Same thing Coca cola does. Same thing most all corporations do.

Come on ,  it is called IDOLS GIVE BACK ,  it is registered as a part of

Idol Gives Back Foundation is a new not-for-profit organization established by the producers of American Idol and FOX to raise money and awareness for children and families living in poverty and at risk in the US. and abroad. Idol Gives Back Foundation is harnessing American Idol's ability to capture America's hearts and the power of entertainment to benefit some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.

How We Do It
Idol Gives Back Foundation harnesses American Idol's ability to capture America's hearts and the power of entertainment to benefit some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.

http://www.americanidol.com/idolgivesback/foundation/

Isn't what is out there in bold exactly what P&G is doing?? harnessing P & G's ability to capture the attention and hearts of American consumer's to benefit some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world??  COME ON!!!

oh please, b4 sanitary pads wer invented nko? didnt ppl use cloth and manage themselves, oh pls these money making fools shud spare me d b*llsh*t. As I am writing my volvic water bottle says 1L = 10L for Africa. If not that volvic is the only water that doesnt taste of chalk I would have latered their @$$e$. fools,

Kobojunkie


((((((CLAPPING))))))))

Your posts were wonderfully on spot!

The fact is there ARE girls in some parts of Africa who do miss school because of their periods and I doubt very much these girls are going. . .

I am not going to use the Pads from ALWAYS because their motives for supplying them to me are less that altrustic.


Just because some of us have the luxury of choosing between a pad (maxi with wings, slim fitting without wings, night-time with contours, day time with odor preventing strips), Tampons (long, short, easily insertable) and Tissues (2 ply, 4 ply, 204 ply) does not mean every one has that choice. Why do we now begrudge those who don't of getting pads just because our ignorant friends asks us if we missed school during our period? Honestly!

Instead of getting mad at the P&G, why not educate your friends about Africa? You might want to start by clarifying the following

1) Africa is a Continent with many Countries with many States with many Cities and Villages.
2) No. . .we don't have lions as pet and the last time you saw one, it was at a game reserve.
3) We don't all live in mud houses
4) We don't wear leaf clothings
5) And we most certainly don't have tails.

All the above are misconceptions about Africa and Africans they got from the media. . .through movies, Documentaries and even Ads.

It saddens me that women who are supposed to empathize with these girls (having gone through it and all) are the ones raising holy hell. Not only that, but going as far as saying "Before sanitary pads were invented, women managed themselves". Yeah, there's no disputing that women did manage themselves. . .however, pads have been created to put an end to the "management". Tell me again, why we want to turn back the hands of time and have some people still managing in 2008? Oh right, I forgot. . .it's because some ignorant person asks us if we ever missed school during our period.

oh please, before sanitary pads wer invented nko? didnt people use cloth and manage themselves, oh please these money making fools should spare me d b*llsh*t. As I am writing my volvic water bottle says 1L = 10L for Africa. If not that volvic is the only water that doesnt taste of chalk I would have latered their @$$e$. fools,

Very soon, MTN, celtel etc will join the band wagon and their slogan will be: For every minute call you make, you'll be donating N1 to the kanu nwanko heart foundation or hunger fighting foundation of Nigeria.

Needlelady:


Very soon, MTN, celtel etc will join the band wagon and their slogan will be: For every minute call you make, you'll be donating N1 to the kanu nwanko heart foundation or hunger fighting foundation of Nigeria.

uuumm, you act like you have never bought the yoghurt with the pink ribbon at the store that tells you that if you send in the pink cap, $0.10 cents go to the national hearts foundation. JEEZZZZ people. Stop acting like you are oblivious of the fact that it has been going on for ages now. Heck, even LIVE AID 95 and the others were used for marketing Rock Muscians as well as helping raise funds to feed Ethiopia back in the day. Are you going to tell me that it was wrong for them to play a CONCERN and ask you to come see their concern so money raised can be used to feed those dying faces we saw like every day for months back in 1995??