Talking about periods has often been a taboo subject. Still many girls are too embarrassed to talk about periods or ask for sanitary products and of course there’s also the financial side of it too. Many girls can’t afford sanitary products and their parents may struggle financially too, so they don’t want to ask, or they can’t. Most school girls from rural areas heavily relied on their schools for sanitary pads. With schools shutting down indefinitely because of COVID-19, it is extremely difficult for girls to get sanitary napkins and they end up practicing unhygienic methods. To tackle this lack of access to period products, especially during the COVID-19, Team WeCitizents Foundation and SarkariSchool.In launched the “Gift a pad campaign”, which is a series of pad donation drives for the betterment of health and wellness of schoolgirls from rural areas. So far, we have been able to reach out to more than 500 girls.
With this alarming issue Project Vedana set up this campaign with an aim to break the taboos related to menstruation and to combat girls missing school because of their periods and we aim to deliver proper menstrual hygiene products and spread awareness regarding the same.
Only 36% of India’s 336 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins. And with the Covid-19 crisis, this number has gone down rapidly, with our campaign we aim to tackle this problem and also to change the narrative regarding periods. Throughout this campaign our volunteers showed great support, they with all respect gifted sanitary pads to the girls within their reach. This showed that the youth of India today no longer think periods is a topic of shame and something we should not talk openly about.
Project Vedana has initiated this amazing campaign; these small steps will lead to big change in the society someday. The volunteers bought a packet of sanitary pads and gave it to a girl or woman in need, as a gift, they also captured this moment. Volunteers were encouraged to have a little conversation with the girl and her parents regarding what they think about it? And give them healthy information about the use of sanitary pads over unhygienic things. We hope that with our initiative soon enough the taboos are broken and menstrual hygiene will not be a shame but pride and dignity.