We’re busy bees here at Riley, growing the business (you know how it is with a start up), taking all customer feedback on-board, continuously improving our products, the list goes on. One thing at the top of our list that we go back to in all of our business meetings is, why are we doing this? How can we give back? So we thought it would be nice to give you an insight into all the ways our customers help us to give back at Riley.
First and foremost are the products themselves…
We’ve saved 1,959,706 products ending up in landfill. How? Our products are 100% organic cotton with no bleach, toxins or harmful chemicals, so you, our fantastic customers, can put *all of your sanitary products in the compost bin (*only exception here is the tampon applicator, you can recycle that, but don’t worry we’re working on this too!). And…last year we offset 58,868kg of CO2 emissions. Okay so to put it into perspective that’s 58 tonnes, imagine driving around the world 58 times in an average car.
Development Pamoja
Development Pamoja, an Irish registered charity based in Kenya, works to responsibly develop disadvantaged communities in rural Kenya. With a team of local Kenyans, the goal is to improve living standards and enable self-sufficiency through community-based cooperative initiatives. How does Riley help?
As Development Pamoja’s work focuses on providing primary healthcare, improving farm practices and community support such as education, we thought we could merge some of these together and sponsor a valuable menstruation education programme for schools. This programme is aimed at young students to help educate them on their menstrual health. Development Pamoja’s resident doctor, Mary, visits local schools each term to host this programme and answer any questions the students may have. The goal is that they’ll be better equipped to manage their period with the information, tools and products we supply. We’ve sponsored 10 schools already and educated 1,551 Kenyan students on menstrual health. And we don’t stop there - we also supply sanitary products to these schools and stock Development Pamoja’s medical clinics with sanitary products. Love a good statistic, here’s another one, so far we have donated 21,851 pads to those that need them.
Positive Period Ireland
I know you might think, holy moly, slow down ladies, but we can’t, we have so much more to do. This time we thought about moving a little closer to home as we know that period poverty isn’t just an issue in developing countries, it’s an issue here in Ireland too. Although most girls are educated on their menstrual health to a basic standard, access to sanitary products is still a major issue. Whether it’s pads, tampons, pain relief, it can all be expensive for many people, and not everyone can afford it every month. That’s why we needed a partner who aligned with our values and our mission, and oh boy did we find the perfect partner. Positive Period Ireland donates feminine hygiene products to those who otherwise would go without. The donations are brought by volunteer drivers to Homeless Outreach Centres, Direct Provision Centres and Women’s Refuges. We can’t wait to see the impact of our partnership over the next 12 months.
Once again, thank you to all of our customers, without your support, none of this would be possible!
Much Love,
Team Riley x
