200 Rupees. Half a Day's Wage
In Sri Lanka, one pack of sanitary products costs around 200 rupees. For women working on tea plantations or in rural communities, that is the equivalent of half a day's wage. For millions of women across South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and communities in crisis, choosing between sanitary protection and feeding their family is not hypothetical. It is a monthly reality.
For Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan, this was not something she read about in a report. It was something she grew up around. Born in Sri Lanka and now based in Leicester, Zinthiya founded Bear Earth CIC because she understood from personal experience that period poverty is not just about products. It is about education, stigma, and the systematic undervaluing of women's health needs.
A Problem That Does Not Stop at Borders
Through her work with the Zinthiya Trust and the She Inspires Community and Enterprise Hub in Leicester, Zinthiya saw that period poverty was not confined to developing nations. In the UK, those working on Bear Earth's community project reported that many girls were missing up to a week of school every month, not because of illness, but because they had no period products or because cultural stigma around menstruation kept them at home.
"Throughout the world, women and girls continue to use traditional methods such as rags or alternative products such as toilet tissues during their periods because they can't afford the cost of menstrual products," Zinthiya has said. "There are times women and girls must trade sex in return for period products, which is unacceptable."
The scale of the problem demanded more than one-off donations. It needed a sustainable funding model that could support ongoing product distribution and education, both locally in Leicester and internationally.
Why Bear Earth Is Built Differently
Bear Earth is registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC), not a traditional charity. CICs are regulated to ensure that profits and assets are used for community benefit rather than private gain. This means:
100% of profits go back into the mission. No shareholders, no dividends, no executive bonuses. Every penny funds dignity kits and menstrual health education.
Transparent, direct impact. Donations and sponsorships fund specific products: sanitary pads, soap, towels, underwear, and essentials that reach real women and girls through Bear Earth's distribution network.
A multiplier model for education. Bear Earth runs a Train The Trainer programme, working with university students including Global Health MSc students, to build a network of ambassadors who deliver menstrual health workshops in their own communities. Your support does not just fund products. It funds knowledge that spreads.
How Your Support Reaches People
In the UK, Bear Earth distributes products through the Zinthiya Trust via food banks and community shops in Leicester. Internationally, dignity kits reach refugee camps, rural areas where mainstream aid does not reach, plantations, prisons, and urban slums.
Whether you are an individual sponsoring a dignity kit, setting up a monthly donation, or a business subscribing to a partnership plan, the pathway is the same: your money goes directly to products and education, with zero diverted to private profit.
A Young Organisation With a Growing Need
Bear Earth is still in its early years, but the model is proven and the need is growing. The cost-of-living crisis has pushed more UK families into hygiene poverty than at any point in the past decade. Globally, 500 million women and girls still lack what they need to manage their periods safely.
"Bear Earth has been started with one goal," Zinthiya has said. "To work towards ending period poverty by educating and equipping the females of our world to embrace something which is so natural and normal."
If that goal resonates with you, your support, however small, directly advances it.
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