At the end of June this year I made the largest yearly donation to One Girl I have been able to make in the 12 years of running Tsuno. It was $51000. To put this into perspective, since starting Tsuno in 2014, I have collectively donated just over $200 000 ( $200,271.34 if I’m being pedantic about it). I was so excited about this years result. I don’t know how to properly convey how challenging it is running a business like this, riddled with self doubt, with disappointments, with logistics and financial challenges, all the while sprinkled with an almost insane level of optimism that things will get better- not just on a small scale in the day to day operations of a small social enterprise in a southern part of our world, but on a larger scale for humanity and our planet.
I started Tsuno because one day in 2012 I sat in a university product design class and a woman called Chantelle Baxter arrived and proceeded to tell us about a trip she went on to Sierra Leone, and the subsequent small charity she and a friend started in response to meeting a young girl who needed some money for school supplies. It was called One Girl, and the small group of people running it, along with Chantelle, had this optimistic and purposeful energy that seemed so inclusive and exciting. I was incredibly lost at the time. I was close to the end of my very drawn out time at university (a later ADHD diagnosis put those 4 attempted uni degrees into perspective). I knew I needed to do something with my life that felt meaningful, and I also knew I needed to get a job and stop taking the piss and grow up. It was a difficult pill to swallow, but what happened as a result of this talk by Chantelle was a whole new world opening up to me. I became obsessed with period products. I could finally define the word feminism, and I liked it. Chantelle had explained the realities girls who they were sending to school faced when they got their periods and a combination of poverty and taboo and inequality combined to make a period a reason for an education ending. Of course, at this juncture in my life, the obvious thing to do would be to start a business selling period products and give the money to One Girl to help them with their goal of educating 1 million girls. Yes. 1 million girls. That’s that optimistic energy I explained earlier. I had it too. I believed I could just start selling my Tsuno pads, and that of course the whole bleeding population of the country would somehow magically find out about this little business, switch to Tsuno, and I would have at least 10 million customers within a few years, and the future of the world would be fine, poverty would be over and we could all just live worry free and also whilst I’m at it that the natural world would be fine and all suffering is over and world peace would also happen. Thank you very much.
Fast forward 12 years, a few weeks ago Emma Hess and Emma Clark, 2 of the 3 current Australian staff from One Girl requested to come and meet me. I assumed it was to say a personal thank you for the lovely donation I surprised them with on June 30 and to brainstorm ways we could continue to work together and support more girls in Sierra Leone to open their worlds and opportunities further. During the last 12 years, I, along with everyone who has worked at One Girl, had come to understand that 1 million girls was maybe a bit delusional, (in a beautiful way that no-one can fault), but that didn’t matter, because even if one girl is supported and her life outcomes are improved, that’s success… and the charity had been succeeding in that way. Thousands of girls have graduated school because of this small Australian charity. Anyway, Emma and Emma sadly were there to tell me the incredibly difficult news that they had had to make the decision to close One Girl for reasons outlined below. I cried. I asked them if they were ok, I reflected on those early days of starting Tsuno, of Chantelle who had sadly passed away a few years ago, and all the amazing staff I have had the pleasure of knowing over the years, and I thought of the girls in Sierra Leone who are starting school this month. But what I refused to do was to let it get me down and throw my hands in the air, give up and be convinced that everything is doomed. 12 years of running a small business, and just the general wisdom I now possess as a 40 year old (hehe, can't wait till I'm 90!) has shown me to appreciate things on a smaller scale and take notice of how small things add up, even if they don’t last forever.
I don’t know how to wrap this bit of writing up, so perhaps it’s a good time to share some things that both Emma’s wrote for me to share with you.
2026 Donation
“When Tsuno’s extraordinary $51,000 donation arrived this EOFY, it was a profoundly moving moment for our team.
As you may now know, the compounding realities of the current economic climate have forced One Girl to make the difficult but responsible decision to wind down our operations. We wanted to close proactively so we could honor our final commitments to the scholars in our care, rather than slowly running out of resources and abandoning our values and mission.
In the midst of navigating this heartbreaking transition, Tsuno’s gift became an absolute lifeline. Because it costs $1,250 to keep a scholar in our program for an entire year, we know exactly what this donation achieved: it provided the guaranteed, ring-fenced funding to fully support 40 adolescent girls in Sierra Leone through their final educational milestones with us.
Tsuno didn’t just fund our programs this year; your community helped us close our doors with integrity. For these 40 girls, your support provided stability during an incredibly uncertain time. It guaranteed their textbooks, their uniforms and their daily lunch money.
Because of you, 40 young women are staying in the classroom, learning their rights, and taking control of their own futures. Thank you for being with us right up to the very end, and for helping us finish this incredible 17-year chapter with so much pride.”
Emma Clark- Fundraising Director, One Girl
Overall Partnership
"For 12 years, Tsuno has been so much more than a corporate sponsor to One Girl - they have been the heartbeat of our mission. Over the lifetime of our partnership, Tsuno and their incredible community have contributed a staggering $200,000 to girls' education in Sierra Leone.
Tsuno understood from day one that you cannot talk about girls' education without talking about menstrual health. Their support over the last decade has helped educate thousands of girls, prevented early marriages, and shattered systemic cycles of poverty.
The legacy of Tsuno's investment is not just a number on a page. It lives in the young women who are now university graduates, business owners, and leaders in their communities because a brand in Australia believed in them. That is a permanent victory, and a multi-generational impact that can never be undone."
Emma Hess, CEO, One Girl
If you’ve made it this far, I suppose I just want to say thank you. Although I may not have 10 million customers, you make up the small handful of people who choose to sprinkle the world with optimism and make running this business a possibility, and have remarkably improved the lives of a number of girls in Sierra Leone.
Now that One Girl has closed today, I’m sure there are questions about what comes next for Tsuno’s profit sharing? Right now, I don’t have the answer ready to go. I will be taking a few months to assess the options available, but I do know the pillars of the decision will be rooted around impact, education, girls and menstruation. If you have any suggestions or questions please know my inbox is open.
Ok! That’s all from me for now!
Love Roz
