Raaji's First Virtual Menstrual Hygiene Full Day Event Celebrated on 28th May 2021
The world has jumped on the Zoom bandwagon with the onset of COVID-19. Initially, it seemed impossible to imagine our reproductive and menstrual health Chatbot Raaji reaching adolescent girls and women living in urban slums or rural areas across Pakistan. However, with the help of our partnerships and collaborations, we were able to reach an unanticipated number of people. On the 28th of May 2021, we hosted our First Virtual Menstrual Hygiene Day, with the theme "Partnerships, Sustainability, and the Path Ahead For Menstrual Hygiene in Pakistan." We connected with 16 speakers from 3 countries including activists, community specialists, entrepreneurs, innovators, non-profit organizations, and young professionals to talk on Menstrual Hygiene, Taboos, rural communities' perspectives, entrepreneurial ideas, and successful entrepreneurs for menstrual products, disaster planning, and refugee girls’ challenges, menstrual cup usage, stress and anxiety during menstruation, the path ahead for menstrual hygiene in Pakistan.
Our first host of the day, Ms. Anjum Malik, Communications Officer, RSPN, began the event with greetings and a synopsis of the day's agenda. Following then, Ms. Saba Khalid, Founder and CEO of Aurat Raaj, expressed her views and complimented all of the partners for remotely participating in the historic event on #MHDay2021. All the 3 Rural Support Programmes’ representatives shared their thoughts on our partnership with them. They discussed the community's needs as well as their reactions to this year's menstruation awareness sessions. They also expressed their willingness and support for long-term entrepreneurial initiatives to meet the menstruation needs of the community. A group screenshot was taken to celebrate the formal partnership between Aurat Raaj and RSPs (NRSP, TRDP and SRSO) as all RSPs have signed MOUs with Raaji. Then, Mr. Fazal Ali Saadi, Programme Manager of SUCCESS, RSPN, shared his views about MHM with respect to the demand and supply in the rural communities. The first session ended with Saba Khalid acknowledging the unrelenting support of MIT Solve, BMW Foundation and other partners who fully coordinated even during the pandemic. A slideshow depicting Aurat Raaj's journey since 2018 was shown to the audience.
Our first Speaker was Mr. Khimchand Sanjo, Communications Officer from TRDP. He highlighted the role of boys and men in menstrual hygiene by presenting the notions of male Community Resource Persons. He also said that males could also become the ambassadors to challenge the status quo of myths surrounded by it. They can support women and girls to manage menstruation effectively across various social domains including home, community, school, and work as fathers, brothers, peers, spouses, teachers, community leaders, students, entrepreneurs, social development practitioners and policymakers. Khimchand shared the case study of a school teacher in Manjhand, Muhammad Saleh Memon who not only welcomed Aurat Raaj but also supported in providing menstrual awareness sessions to 45 adolescents in the school.
Our second Speaker was Mr. Mansoor Khoso, Communication Manager from NRSP. He shared his thoughts about building MHM friendly ecosystem by presenting what NRSP has already done in the project ‘HerWASH’ for menstrual hygiene with its partnership with WaterAid in Tehseel Thatta. He feels that NRSP and Aurat Raaj may work together to undertake MHM activities in the districts by integrating and developing new strategies. He also gave some of the valuable solutions to kick off the MHM activities and advocacy with an unrelenting speed.
Our third Speaker was Ms. Samina Barkat Ali, Training Coordinator and Gender Focal Person from SRSO. She presented her work around fostering entrepreneurial skills by forming Business Development Groups (BDGs) in rural communities so that the women use their vocational skills for socio-economic and financial empowerment. She also highlighted the mask-making initiatives by BDGs during the pandemic and expressed her positive thoughts on the potential to create business and enterprises on menstrual products to meet community demands cost-effectively. RSPs can support BDGs with the technical skills for creating sanitary products at the local level.
Our fourth speaker was Ms. Uzma, a Rural Entrepreneur from one of the villages of Larkana. She is a trainer of BDG ‘Sughar’ formed under SRSO in which 25 rural women are working together with their appliqué and embroidery skills. Uzma shares that she use Whatsapp as a business tool for expanding her business and grow her online clientele. Uzma shares that most of the community women use sanitary clothes during periods and some are using sanitary pads. She informed us that there isn't a single shop that sells sanitary pads, so women must travel to the city to get such supplies.
She is willing to get training digitally on creating menstrual products and said that her BDG participants will also work with her in this cause. Ms. Saba Khalid acknowledged the work and efforts of Uzma and she announced that Uzma would get support from Aurat Raaj to make an incubator in her community for meeting menstrual inequity.
We had our first-panel discussion on ‘Menstruation and Child Marriage’ that was moderated by Ms. Shaiwana Pathan, Communications & Content Consultant with three panelists from RSPs namely Ms. Uroosa Khatti, Manager Liaison and Coordination in SRSO, Ms. Samina Bano, District Capacity Building Officer from NRSP and Ms. Nasreen Khan, District Manager from TRDP. All of the panelists have extensive experience in researching and mitigating child marriages, as well as advocating for its eradication in rural areas. Unfortunately, Samina Bano could not join the panel discussion but the rest of the panelists discussed stereotypes related to menstruation and early marriages.
Uroosa Khatti expressed that her team has faced a lot of resistance when they started working on this subject of menstruation as mothers in rural areas do not disclose menstruation and its process until their daughters experience it.
It was also noticed that Rural women couldn’t dry out their sanitary clothes in open places because it is against the village norms.
Nasreen Khan shared case studies from rural communities and mentioned the causes of early child marriages including the honor of family, respect, and reducing financial burden. In consequence, she shared that these early marriages could result in early pregnancies, no birth-spacing, health problems, and insufficient health and awareness facilities could aggravate the conditions. Both the panelists highlighted that Community leaders and Resource Persons could become the advocate for halting such marriages and help to change the mindsets of people who link menstruation and marriages. According to them, it’s a long journey to go but their small steps and strong strategies can change the lives of many young girls.
With that, we called our next Speaker from SRSO’s District Kamber-Shahdadot. Ms. Urbeli, Community Resource Person and first Menstrual Ambassador of Raaji in the rural community. She is in charge of conducting awareness sessions in their areas related to issues like mother and child healthcare, health and hygiene, nutrition, birth spacing and much more.
Urbeli virtually attended Raaji’s menstrual hygiene awareness sessions in January and she actively took the initiative to conduct menstrual awareness sessions in 5-6 different villages of District Kamber. We connected with Urbeli before the event, she shared myths, taboos through her experiences in multiple awareness sessions conducted independently. The most surprising practice that was observed by Urbeli is that rural women avoid attending wedding ceremonies during their menstrual cycle. It may be because of the fear of unprotected products they use during periods. Also, she shared that fish and beef are not allowed to eat during periods. She was encouraged to work with us in the future as well.
After that, Saba Khalid hosted a lightning talk with Shehzeen, an Instagram Influencer who talked about using the menstrual cup and its challenges. Shehzeen shared that one can get rid of rashes, irritation and discomfort while at sleep by using menstrual cups instead of napkins. She also talked about the affordability of menstrual cups and their long-lasting use. She said that one can buy a menstrual cup for PKR 2,000 and it can last around 8-10 years. She stated that her first experience with menstrual cups was awful, but once a girl/woman relaxes the body and tries, she can get rid of many of the challenges associated with using napkins. Shehzeen also mentioned that there has not been a single case of toxic shock syndrome caused due to menstrual cups. She added that one could do any activity including yoga, going to the beach, cycling and any kind of sports wearing a menstrual cup.
Shehzeen also influenced the young generation including her friends to use a menstrual cup and they all are happy to use it. In the end, she gave a message that spreading awareness and education is the most important thing we can do as a community to promote menstrual hygiene.
Our next Speaker was an Indian entrepreneur, Swarnima Bhatacharya, Founder of Theacare, a platform providing long-term healthcare for menstruation. Sarah Shamim, an intern of Aurat Raaj, hosted a lightning talk with her to discuss menstrual product waste, sustainability, and its environmental impact. Swarnima explained the meaning of sustainable menstruation and shared that pads are made of plastic and 1 pad is equal to 4 plastic bags that take years to decompose and cause landfill problems. Conclusively, exposed pads are causing environmental problems and that is the reason individuals and organizations are looking for alternatives.
Swarnima also highlighted the stigma related to virginity and the fear of insertion that comes with menstrual cups. She also introduced the menstrual waste calculator created by New Delhi Global Shapers as it motivates people to be aware of how much waste one is generating and take other options like a menstrual cup or else they would balance by using non-plastic materials in their other activities like shopping or grocery. She also expressed some brands that are using banana fiber to create pads but since they are not produced in bulk and due to rising raw material costs, the prices of pads also rise, leading to inaccessibility.
Swarnima added that a product is sustainable when it is comfortable, safe and affordable over a long period of time. Unfortunately water shortages hinder people from washing sanitary cloth pads or cups with full hygiene, so a larger problem is yet to be addressed. According to her, more R&D towards cost-effective and eco-friendly raw materials for sanitary products might help to resolve the sustainability issues.
Aurat Raaj collaborated with Beti Foundation, an empowering media and advocacy campaign that focuses on highlighting the plight of women, standing against misogyny. Ramma Cheema, founder of Beti was with us on the day to moderate a session with a Panel Discussion on “Menstrual disorders and the effects of a pandemic on existing reproductive health conditions'' with 2 distinguished personalities: Dr. Usman Amin, Consultant Psychiatrist, Head of Psychiatry Department at Rashid Latif Medical College and Dr. Mateen Hotiana, Consultant Endocrinologist at Genesis HealthCare. They discussed hormones and their disturbance that causes certain behavioral and menstrual changes.
They suggested focusing on diet and more physical activities for growing children. Both panelists talked about period shaming and said that education and confidence given by mothers about the natural process of menstruation is necessary to stop this shame. It was also discussed that delayed periods are alarming and could indicate an underlying issue. Hence, people experiencing them should consult a professional to get the issue diagnosed. Both Panelists disagree with the myth of not taking shower during the menstrual cycle. They add that it is only the diet, stress, physical exercises and sleeping patterns that affect the menstrual cycle. In their closing remarks, panelists shared that the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination do not have any direct impact on menstruation but it is the panic and stress caused by a pandemic that is affecting the menstrual cycle.
Our next Speaker was Susie Kahlich, founder of SINGE GmbH and Pretty Deadly Self-Defence from Berlin, Germany. Susie talked about the link between sexual harassment and menstrual needs mentioning the disaster planning camps. She investigated this further when she was working on the link between gender-based violence and climate change.
She expressed that her research in refugee camps showed some consistent challenges the women face, which were menstrual hygiene management and physical safety. She also shared that domestic violence is also a great challenge because women in refugee camps were often punished to cut blankets to absorb their menstrual flow as those blankets were considered valuable to be used during freezing floods. So accessibility and affordability of menstrual product is also a problem in such camps.
She said that self-defense could help women to protect themselves against domestic violence and physical harassment. It is a tool that can help women to disrupt and react to that moment that is going to affect the whole life of the women.
According to Susie, prioritizing girls’ and women's menstrual needs while planning and designing camps could help to support the vulnerable groups. Also, creating blueprints that are easily deployed for disaster camps and teaching girls and women about menstrual hygiene is important. Federica from Susie’s team also joined the session and shared her views on the importance of women empowerment, self-defense and creating menstrual products in refugee camps by utilizing their skills, this way they can value themselves and feel empowered.
After that, Saba Khalid hosted a panel with Renuka Swami from UNFPA and Sehar Taimoor, Manager HerWASH from WaterAid to share their perspectives on “The role of youth innovation and advocacy for menstrual health.” According to them, WaterAid MHM Materials is providing good support to schoolgirls in understanding periods and their management and their work in gender-friendly toilets also encourages women and girls to enjoy their privacy. Renuka also expressed that UNFPA values humanitarian rights including menstrual needs. UNFPA has programmes for young people; like adolescents' sexual reproductive health model in Sindh. They are also working on a community engagement model with RSPs in 2 Districts of Matiari and Kamber-Shahdadkot in Sindh for bringing young people in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues including menstrual hygiene.
Young people are the core of UNFPA’s programmes and their inclusion in such initiatives is necessary because they know their issues best and they can guide what facilitation they need from UNFPA. Also, this young segment is more familiar with technology and innovation so bringing them to the table while planning and strategizing population and development indicators is crucial.
Following this, Saba Khalid invited the last Speakers, Sarah Shamim and Suha Lalani to share their thoughts on the depiction of menstruation in film and television. Suha and Sarah presented snippets of some movie clips including theIndian Movie PadMan, short-film Third Period and an animated film by Disney. The idea was to present how media shows different concepts related to menstruation and expresses the difficulties women and girls face during their menstrual cycle including mood swings, emotional instability, disturbing thoughts, stigmas, and accessibility of the products as shown in the PadMan.
Ms. Saba Khalid concluded the session by appreciating all of the event's partners, presenters, and collaborators for attending and participating. It was a virtual celebration that aimed to create a united and strong voice for women and girls specifically around Pakistan and the world, helping to break the silence around Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM). A key element of cultural practices surrounding reproductive health in Pakistan, including menstruation, is the ‘culture of silence.’ We wanted to break this silence and support the girls and women who have very limited knowledge of menstruation and related hygiene practices.