More about Hanaru

What's in a name?

Sanitary pads, sanitary napkins, sanitary towels, feminine napkins, feminine pads, menstrual pads - all the same thing, but known by various names depending on what country you are in. In India, sanitary napkin is the preferred term, here in Australia you often see sanitary pads used instead, whilst in the UK it's sanitary towels. The word used doesn't really matter, just that we all understand it relates to the same actual thing. Across our site, you might see a mixture of the terms used in referenced links and quotes.

Because our products are aimed at Indian girls, most of the time we use the word napkin.

Meaning

What does Hanaru mean? For us, it means using all of the growth gained from our life experiences to achieve success and accomplish our goals.

In Japan, a name is created by first deciding on its sound. There will be many ways to write this name in Japanese, depending on which letters are applied to the sound. Hanaru written in English can be translated into Hiragana as はなる or into Katakana as ハナル. However, the founder wished to use a Kanji letter 果 for the sound of HA, to mean fulfilment of the objectives.

Accountability

To ensure the best use of the funds our supporters generously donated, we organise every step of the process - from acquiring materials, training local producers, quality control, distributing napkins and providing menstrual education to the girls.

Helping more girls

We want to expand the number of girls we can support. Half of our Ambassadors have been distributing napkins in Delhi and according to the Delhi Government, "about one-third of Delhi lives in sub-standard housing, which includes 675 slums and JJ Clusters (unauthorized colony consisting of shanties and temporary makeshift structures), 1,797 unauthorized colonies, old dilapidated areas and 362 villages. These areas often lack safe, adequate housing and basic services"[1]. Many of these families would not be able to afford napkins, which is a similar situation faced by the Ambassadors in Northern India.