The cloth pads come in a variety of shapes and colours. Credit:Ecopads Despite being "horrified" by the thought of using reusable sanitary pads to begin with, Ms Thong said she was soon swayed by the idea. "When I first ever got introduced to cloth pads, like a lot of women who used disposables, my first reaction was shock and horror, I thought they were the weirdest things ever," she said. "They were mainly being made in the US, the UK...I saw they were expensive to buy, it would have cost me about $30." Ms Thong began making her own in her spare time, while studying a bachelor of speech pathology, and in October 2015 she set up her own Etsy shop that sold a variety of cloth pads made from flannel, cloth and fleece with wings that "snap" together to keep the pad in place.

Ms Thong has made each cloth pad from scratch using her own design. Credit:Ecopads "I have never had any experience at sewing before, I have never particularly ever been a sewer," she said. "We use flannel which is quite absorbent. They have seven layers of flannel, which should last up to six hours. "I was skeptical, but once I started using them, I realised they are quite absorbent and often more so (than disposable pads). "In terms of hygiene, they are chemical free, it's cotton and no other hidden chemicals."

Ms Thong began talking to her friends about the cloth pads, which led to discussions around period shaming. "It really took me aback, realising (periods) were having a huge impact on girls' lives," she said. "Once I delved into the space of period shaming and speaking publicly about it, I had friends from certain backgrounds saying 'I have personal experiences where I was shunned, I was made to wake at 5am because I was thought to be impure and dirty, I was shunned to a cow shed when I had my period'. "My friends who are 21 had experienced it when they were 13-14." Ms Thong decided to create a one-for-one model, where for every cloth pad purchased, one was sent to a girl or woman in India.

"One in five girls in India don't go to school when they have their period," she said. "Some consider them evil, or dirty when have their period, there is a stigma to not go to school or be out in community when it is that time of month. "A lot of it is because they don't have access to sanitary pads, with fear of I guess leaking they would rather stay at home instead of using torn up rags, newspaper, sponges etc. "We are hoping, through the cloth pads that have been distributed so far, it helps them first to manage their periods more discreetly and help them to go to school. "My background is Cambodian - I researched high and low before I chose India because it was one of the most written about in literature and one that already had existing statistics about period shaming."

Ms Thong was a semi-finalist in the Queensland Young Achievers Award in the Environmental and Sustainability Category in 2015 and in June this year she crowd-sourced $15,000 to produce the cloth pads on a larger scale. With more than 1200 sold since October last year, Ms Thong said she was looking to Australian manufacturers if the production became too much for her to handle. "I have a year left after this one (in my degree) but sewing is really therapeutic for me, so being able to do this on the side is great it gives me time to actually just do something and clear my mind, it is actually a bit like meditation," she said. "I couldn't imagine not making them but if numbers do get larger, then we will try and get them manufactured somewhere else. "We have spoken to a couple of manufacturers here in Australia tro potentially partner up with."

Ms Thong also planned to partner up with certain charities to help distribute and assist in the cleaning of cloth pads for Australian women who might otherwise struggle to afford sanitary products. "We are hoping we can do a one for one here in Australia too, a lot of attention gets put on developing countries but often we forget to think of our own women here," she said. "I am hoping to set up some sort of partnership with some charities here to distribute the cloth pads to girls who are disadvantaged or homeless." Stay informed. Like Brisbane Times on Facebook