Melissa Zackon
Co-Founder
Every little bit counts, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven't spent the night with a mosquito.”
ABOUT Melissa
Melissa matriculated from Herzlia high school in 2010, and then took a year off to work and travel abroad. She returned to study at the University of Stellenbosch and completed a BA majoring in English, Psychology, and Anthropology. She then completed her Honours in Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town.
With a keen interest in the environment, Melissa co-authored the paper “Desalination and Seawater Quality at Green Point, Cape Town: A study on the effects of marine sewage outfalls”, based on her Honours research. In 2019 her research was presented in Aarhus, Denmark at the Governing Urban Natures conference.
In 2020 she then went on to complete her MPhil in Environmental Humanities South at the University of Cape Town.
Today, Melissa is the school program coordinator at CTEET (Cape Town Environmental Education Trust) and co-founder of Mama Flo.
Why Mama Flo? Melissa has always had a passion for connecting and working with people. From a young age, her family instilled in her strong values to always do what you can to help others. Through watching them, she has learned what it truly means to be able to give back, and why beginning Mama Flo felt natural to her.
It has allowed her to not only give back, but also to learn and connect with so many incredible humans, and be able to work with them towards a common goal.
https://www.facebook.com/mamaflosa/
melissa.zackon@gmail.com
AREAS WE WORK IN:
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Education
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Health
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Volunteering
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Women
Mama Flo was founded in 2020 with our goal being to empower young girls to stay clean and healthy by providing them with sanitary products - both single use and reusable - because we believe no women should have to worry about their period.
In 2021, Mama Flo joined the Union of Jewish Women as an independent project under the UJW umbrella. Working as one of their projects has provided Mama Flo with additional support and resources to help fight period poverty.
Together with providing our Mama Flo community with sanitary pads, we endeavour to provide menstrual hygiene education and allow for open dialogue on the topic of Period Poverty. We believe we need to get rid of the stigma around periods and do our best to provide a safe space for our beautiful community.
Our aim is to provide short and long term sustainable solutions to period poverty through hand-outs, workshops and social media campaigns.
