🧕♀️Raaji & Partners lead a new path forward in Pakistan for Menstrual Hygiene Education 👩🏫💻
Last week, I got to witness the magic created by Saba and Jaya at Aurat Raaj. It was my third day joining the team as their Social Media Lead and got to support the team in its first Menstrual Education & Gender Equality focused pilot in 2020 at The Garage School. Aurat Raaj is an ambitious Pakistani start-up that wants to empower girls by educating them about their health.
We were anxious, excited, and feeling humbled as we waited for UNFPA Pakistan colleagues (Sabrina Khan, Bayramgul, Renuka Swami) who wanted to see our activities in action and take a tour of our office in Karachi.
When our guests arrived, we briefed them about our 2020 plan of reaching at least 60 schools with our menstrual education curriculum. On the other hand, our committed volunteers prepared goodie bags that were sent to us by our event sponsor Santex Pakistan for the audience. Since 2019, Santex Pakistan has been supporting our cause through the provision of their Butterfly Pads at our pilots. Their team has contributed continuous advice & mentoring and has plans of further supporting our vision.
After the tour concluded, we left for The Garage School with our guests & were joined by Santex’s senior marketing leadership Dione Rodrigues and Erum Adnan as well as our health expert Dr. Shayan Fatima Azad. We also invited media experts and feminist activists Anum Abbas and Sadia Khatri to help us create a visual momentum around our campaign.
Considering no conversation on reproductive health can start without a conversation on gender equality, we utilized the time it took to to set up our chatbot to play gender equality games. And we were so happy to see that these games not only taught important concepts but also spread giggles across the room.
For instance, the premise of our Gender Mobility game was to show girls how one gender is affected by the lack of transportation options, affordability and accessibility issues combined with limited social acceptance for women in public life.
In the next game, we gave a new twist to the typical hurdle race by showcasing the kind of challenges girls and women face everyday in their homes - an imbalance of work division when it comes to household chores and duties. We closed this game with the thought that ‘what if boys could also participate equally in some of the household chores that women do’?
Now with the stage and conversation already set, we had our ‘consent play’. Jaya and Saba acted out various scenarios in front of the girls while the classroom debated whether the scenario in question was consensual or not.
With these activities concluded, Jaya introduced the girls to our chatbot Raaji. The girls were intrigued by her and actively took part in asking her questions. Questions that were still not addressed were taken up by Dr. Shayan who gave one-on-one consultation to the girls as well as a short informative talk. For many of these girls, this was the first time where their curiosity about periods wasn't questioned or shamed.
We also had a few laptops set up so that girls could talk one-on-one with Raaji. An unexpected positive outcome of our campaign was the digital inclusion aspect because young girls in Pakistan often do not get a chance to own or use technology in their homes. While schools like the one we visited are actively pushing to become well-equipped, many other schools do not have access to laptops or phones for learning in the classroom. This makes it quite difficult for us to carry out our blended interventions in such localities.
Going forward, we hope that we get collaborative opportunities with more school networks to play a key role in engaging with bright minds and eager learners so they can be confident and healthy throughout their lives. I’m all geared up to move forward with our future pilots and hopefully achieving our target of reaching 3000 students by the end of 2020!
I have to admit though that this might have not happened had Aurat Raaj not been selected for the MIT Solve 2019 class and awarded the Vodafone Innovation for Women prize. Having such prestigious institutions behind the organisation gives us the push to stay motivated on this difficult journey.
If you'd like to volunteer, donate or work with us on menstrual education across Pakistan, don't feel shy to get in touch with us!
