It is the mission, duty and purpose of BIRDS - SHELTER to empower marginalized widows and abandoned women in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. BIRDS - SHELTER aims to achieve this goal through education, advocacy, and promotion of safe and secure employment for these at-risk women.

The Organization also seeks to raise awareness, both at home and abroad, around the issues facing widows and abandoned women in rural India. To raise awareness, BIRDS - SHELTER will provide information to the public on the discrimination and other social issues facing these women through its website and through fundraising events aiming to both spread awareness and raise funds for the development and maintenance of the SHELTER's programs in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Current Activities:

CSHELTER is currently raising funds to sustain its sanitary napkin manufacturing project in Andhra Pradesh, India. BIRDS - SHELTER also hosts "Widows Appreciation Day," a bi-annual event where 100 widows are transported to the BIRDS campus in the Muthyalpadu village where they receive lunch, small gifts, and participate in activities to help combat grief and raise moral.

Project Purpose and Goals:

The goal of the Sanitary Napkin Project (SNP) is to provide a safe and respectful workplace for widows in a social business that will benefit women and girls in the area by providing them with affordable sanitary napkins.

Feminine hygiene is an important issue that is frequently neglected in many parts of the world. In fact, fewer than 1 in 10 teen girls and women in rural India use sanitary napkins (2011 AC Nielsen survey), instead using scraps of old clothes, or even newspapers or sand to manage their menses. Due to embarrassment, these cloths are rarely cleaned or properly sanitized and have been reported to increase the risk of disease in the reproductive track. In addition to issues of sanitation and health, not having a convenient solution for dealing with menses interferes with women's ability to work or go to school during their menstrual cycles, and just adds to the myriad of challenges facing women in India trying to improve their lives, or those of their children.

As an organization that serves to improve the status of widows in rural Andhra Pradesh, SHELTER is launching the SNP to sustainably employ widows in the manufacture of affordable sanitary napkins. In impoverished rural India, widows are especially marginalized and face daily discrimination that often interferes with their ability to earn a living. Working for SHELTER, widows will earn a fair and dependable wage in a safe and supportive environment. By employing widows to create a product that will benefit the widows themselves as well as women and girls in the area, BIRDS-SHELTER will provide a sustainable social business model that has the potential to improve the lives of thousands of women and girls. By improving education around the issue of feminine hygiene, BIRDS-SHELTER expects have a wide and positive reach into the rural communities serviced by our partner organization, BIRDS-Bharati Integrated Rural Development Society, located in Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh. Any profits generated through this social business will go towards SHELTER's programs to improve the lives of the area's widows.

Because sanitary napkins currently do not have a high rate of use in our target area, SHELTER will launch the program with a series of health fairs and educational events, with participation by graduate students from Pacific University in Oregon and the help of community health workers at BIRDS.

The Sanitary Napkin Project as worked done very well in two groups Lakshmi Devi and Padmavathi groups has done the work challenge and prepared an about 2032 napkins in two months, they packed them with 6 napkins in each packet and sold them in Government girls hostels.