Eleanor Roosevelt asked, where do human rights begin? Where do they matter? In places too small to be seen on maps, in classrooms, playgrounds, offices and homes…
Obviously she was speaking before the days of Google maps, but she made an important point that if they didn’t matter there, they didn’t matter anywhere else.
So I was overjoyed to receive a note from Jaya Bhattacharji Rose about Sarah and Myra’s project at school inspired by Period Matters. They have been mobilised to help bring about change for girls who are marginalised and want them to have dignified menstruation experiences.
Please support these young girls if you can. This will motivate them and encourage them to believe they can do something positive in their own way to help make somebody else’s life a little easier. It will help them widen the conversation and normalise talking about periods in school.
They deserve to be applauded for taking action at such a young age. And bravo to their parents for supporting them.
This message came from Sarah:
Period Matters is the inspiration for this idea and research and fundraiser. The book taught us how much Menstruation is a taboo in South Asia. It also explains explicitly how much it is a taboo by sharing the Instagram example. It also helped us to understand that we must do something about it.
And it is not a big deal that we bleed every month and there is no need to turn it into a taboo. And the book also explained how in some villages there are separate houses and rooms for menstruating women and that is when we realised we need to speak about this in orphanages and schools. Also girls must learn to speak to their elders and parents.
Because if you don’t talk about it, it would lead to poor hygiene and poor reproductive health.