Name: A campaign for period positivity | Ananya Grover
Uploaded: 2020-05-08T09:05:05.000Z
Duration: 9 min 9 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

A simple word describing a natural biological process,

has been transformed into something most of us can only speak about

more than 800 million women around the world

and yet it remains an "embarrassing" subject to broach.

From my experience and that of the women around me,

It's exhausting to carefully take out a brown paper bag hiding a pad,

stuffing it into your pocket in the middle of a class

and rushing to the washroom as discreetly as possible.

It's exhausting to sit through lessons and meetings

while internally crying out from intense period cramps.

It's exhausting to be dismissively told that you're PMSing

or suffering from "that time of the month,"

and it's exhausting to continuously fight back against age-old traditions

visit temples, cook, touch pickle and the list goes on and on,

while you're just trying to bleed and be left in peace.

The worst part is that the things that seem tiring to us

because we in this room are privileged enough

to be able to afford sanitary napkins every month,

to be able to visit a gynecologist in case of any problem,

to be able to tell what's normal and abnormal with our monthly cycle.

We have access to water, sanitation and toilets

that help us maintain our privacy and hygiene.

What about 335 million girls around the world

who go to school without even having access to water and soap

What about 15-year-old schoolgirls in Kenya

who have to sell their bodies to be able to buy sanitary napkins?

What about two-thirds of rural high school girls in India

who don't even understand what their bodies are going through

And right now, we are all gathered here in the USA.

So what about 64 percent of women in St. Louis, Missouri,

who weren't able to afford menstrual hygiene supplies

What about the struggles of homeless, transgender,

stemming in part from the deep-rooted stigma attached to menstruation,

led me, along with three other teammates,

to initiate a campaign that calls for change,

questions the taboos surrounding menstruation

was born from the message that we want to convey to the world.

and "kriti" means "a beautiful creation."

Because how could the monthly cycle that ultimately gives rise to all creation

Now, as a social issue, menstruation has several facets to it

that overlap, reinforce and worsen the situation.

So we based our campaign on four fundamental pillars:

health, hygiene, awareness and spreading positivity.

Well, we started within the walls of our school classroom.

Instead of simply explaining menstruation to children

from a textbook or biological standpoint,

We conducted an activity where students strung together a bracelet

consisting of 28 beads signifying the length of the menstrual cycle,

out of which four to seven beads were of a different color,

And in this way, we not only explained what periods are

we explored various ways of alleviating cramps,

including preparing some natural remedies in school itself.

And we didn't just stop at involving girls in our campaign.

where girls could freely share their personal experiences

and boys could just ask questions, no matter how "dumb" they might seem,

our male volunteers quickly got over their awkwardness,

not just supporting but also leading educational sessions.

Clearly, starting an inclusive conversation,

and listening to and supporting each other,

Now, to make our campaign successful, we conducted extensive research,

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A campaign for period positivity | Ananya Grover

stuff

privilege

access

demonstrate