On November 4, as part of the inaugural Changemakers Festival, and with the support of StartSomeGood, Deloitte’s held a Social Innovation Pitch Night at its Parramatta office.
Four businesses pitched a judging panel that included Deloitte Western Sydney Office Managing Partner Danny Rezek, Lyall Gorman, CEO of Western Sydney Wanderers, and Michael Walls, Editor of Western Sydney Business Access. T
The winner of Parramatta event was Phaemie Ng, founder of Two Rags Clothing. The prize is $5,000 worth of mentoring from Deloitte professionals. Deloitte has joined forces with The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) as sponsor of the Changemakers Festival, which took place around Australia from November 1 -10.
The Changemakers Festival encourages leading thinkers and local organisations to share ideas on how social innovation can tackle some of our toughest social challenges.
Activities included:
• Corporate participation on social change projects involving organisations, like Deloitte, and their employees to use their skills to drive change in their local communities.
• Social enterprise, driven by ‘impact investors’ as alternatives to traditional charity and welfare programs.
• The ‘Sharing Economy’ – making greater use of resources, reducing consumption and our impact on the environment.
• Citizen-led change – co-design and co-creation of social services and change programs by the citizens they aim to assist.
• Crowd funding of social change projects by harnessing community support. Carolyn Curtis, Acting TACSI CEO welcomed Deloitte’s support of the Festival and said she was thrilled to see so many people hosting and attending events.
Winner of the Parramatta pitch event, Two Rags Clothing has a simple mission of: For every underwear purchased, we give a kit of eco-friendly sanitary pads to a woman in need.”
Two Rags Clothing aims to assist the 300 million women in India do not have access to safe sanitary products.
Phaemie Ng said: “We want to equip girls and women everywhere with the essentials to lead a life with dignity. We work literally from the bottom up, by giving girls and women the tools to effectively manage their periods so they are no longer held back.
“We girls deal with things like PMS and cramps but many of us are lucky enough to have tampons and sanitary pads that help us through it with hardly any disruption to our daily routine.
“But unfortunately, not every woman is this lucky. For many girls and women in the developing world, having a period poses real challenges and even health hazards.” Without feminine hygiene products, some women resort to unhygienic materials including:
• Old rags or saris.
• Newspaper.
• Sand.
• Ash.
• Leaves.
• Mattress stuffing.
Using unhygienic materials sometimes leads to health implications caused by bacteria from damp and dirty rags, such as:
• Abnormal discharge.
• Urinary tract infections (UTIs).
• Reproductive tract infections (RTIs).
• Itching and burning.
• Skin rashes.
“Girls also compromise on their education as they often skip school, or drop out completely because they can’t cope with their periods,” said Phaemie “This leads to lower wages and a lower quality of life for them when they grow up, simply because they don't have the means to manage their periods.” Find out how you can help by visiting: www.tworagsclothing.com
FACTS
• More than 300 million women in India do not have access to safe sanitary products.
• Approximately 23% of Indian school girls drop out of school once they start menstruating .
• Many girls are absent from school for around five days per month due to stress of stains, embarrassment, lack of washing facilities and privacy.
• Rags, ash, husk and sand are often used in place of sanitary pads and tampons.
* Source: WSSCC "Break the Silence" Fact Sheet.
