ROUGHLY every 28 days the human body creates a protective layer to help a baby grow and develop. But if a baby has not been conceived within that time period, that protective layer exits the body in the form of blood and tissue. That’s it. That’s all a period is. Menstruation is a normal and natural process to sustain human life on Earth and the more menstruation is looked at as a normal function of the body, the more girls and women across India will not lack access to the information, products and services needed to have safe menstruation i.e. – a global problem called period poverty.
A period, or menstruation, is as normal as sweating or crying. But even in the 21st century, there is still so much hesitation to talk about menstruation as a normal part of human health. This leads to millions of girls and women lacking access to life-saving information about periods, period products and medical attention. The impact of this leads to suffering, poor health and even death. Period poverty is a dangerous issue that can lead to preventable conditions but can be avoided when the health and well being of females are prioritized.
Menstrual Hygiene Day
This article started by explaining menstruation as a cycle that occurs every 28 days. Each year on May 28th, the world observes Menstrual Hygiene Day in recognition of this 28 day cycle. Menstrual Hygiene Day encourages individuals, organizations and global decision makers such as governments to come together to examine the issues faced by girls and women with regard to menstruation and ensure that these issues are dealt with by devising and implementing solutions to combat period poverty. Examples of this include holding awareness sessions with girls and women to teach them about menstruation, making period products available to them for free or at a low cost and holding awareness sessions with people, including boys and men, to normalize periods and break the taboo and stigma against it. This is the 3-fold focus of give.do’s Mission: End Period Poverty.
Mission: End Period Poverty
Give.do’s Mission: End Period Poverty works to end period poverty by giving girls and women the information, products and support needed to have safe and healthy periods. Mission: End Period Poverty works with partner NGOs on ground that reach out to underprivileged girls and women to create a permanent and sustainable impact in the larger communities that the girls and women live in. Each month, when you support Mission: End Period Poverty, you help girls and women from marginalized communities get the support they need to live healthier lives and not live with fear and discrimination.
Period preparedness
The first period is called menarche. Girls around the world are usually aware of what periods are before menarche occurs but for millions across India, there is no knowledge of what periods are. This unpreparedness can lead to anxiety, absence from school, depression and even suicide as can be seen in the case of a fourteen year old teenager in Mumbai who hanged herself to death because she had started her period for the first time, and did not know what was happening to her. Mission: End Period Poverty holds sessions with girls and women to educate them about what menstruation is and how to manage their periods.
Period products
UN Women reports that millions of girls and women worldwide cannot afford period products such as sanitary pads. Without sanitary pads or other products, girls and women from poor backgrounds are forced to use pieces of old cloth, cow dung, crumpled up newspapers and other unhygienic objects. But these objects are unsanitary and often cause infections and illnesses which lead to greater suffering, which is often in silence. Mission: End Period Poverty distributes sanitary pads to girls from marginalized communities and since 2017, our NGO partner has distributed more than 3 million sanitary pads and empowered over 400,000 girls and women.
Period awareness
But to end period poverty, having knowledge about periods shouldn’t be confined to just girls and women. It is only when boys and men are also aware of what menstruation is that we can work together to normalize periods and ensure that half the population has access to proper health and sanitation to keep themselves and others healthy. Mission: End Period Poverty’s NGO partner Pinkishe Foundation has conducted thousands of workshops to educate people, including boys and men, about menstruation and the role they have in normalizing this function and breaking the stigma against periods.
Support Mission: End Period Poverty
This Menstrual Hygiene Day, join the global effort to uplift underprivileged girls and women and ensure they have access to period products. When you become a monthly donor to Mission: End Period Poverty across India, you help half the world live healthier and safer lives.
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Shirley has been in the development sector for over 10 years and is passionate about making a change in the world around her, including adopting dogs and writing to make a difference.
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