Our Story

In March 2022, I came across accounts of women suffering from period poverty in Lebanon amidst a complete and unprecedented economic collapse. After thorough research, I was faced with the following statistic: 77% of women and girls in Lebanon were struggling to access menstrual products at that time.

To put this into perspective, this means that nearly 8 out of 10 menstruating individuals were unable to access hygiene products, and instead had to resort to alternatives such as towels, rags, and a variety of other dehumanising makeshift solutions. Since then, the situation has worsened considerably, and what was once a catastrophe has now become an unspoken tragedy, rarely if ever discussed among the top issues facing Lebanon.

For days, I researched about the initiatives emerging in regions encountering the same problem. I read about bamboo fibre pads, organic cotton pads, and even pads made of algae. It wasn’t until I found an article discussing banana fibre that I realised we had a real shot at this. Banana is mass-produced in Lebanon, which means that a pad made of banana fibre has the potential to be environmentally friendly and cheaper to produce. But if all these assumptions were true, why was this project not already a reality in Lebanon?

I contacted my close friend, a material engineer now working on our team, to ask her about the technicalities of using banana fibre to make sanitary pads. Were all my assumptions true? Could this work? She confirmed it could and responded to some of the concerns I had.

Skoun was born shortly after that. It is a Lebanese term which means “calm” and “tranquility”, precisely what we aim to offer marginalised communities deprived of these necessities.

In Skoun, we understand that care for women will never come from the status quo. We believe that revolutionary solutions that elevate our communities start from the bottom up and can only become sustainable when powered by those affected most by the issue at hand. This is why we aim to place women at the heart of this initiative, not only with our end product but in the internal workings of this organisation.

Skoun is not just about producing pads. We are a movement, a community of passionate people who are committed to making a positive impact in the lives of women and girls in Lebanon, regardless of who they are and where they come from. We are working to bring change to our community by providing access to menstrual products and offering women the tools and power to take control of that process.

Join us on our mission to reclaim our rights. Together, we can create a Lebanon on our terms.