Teach for Pakistan Fellows become Menstrual champions

Continuing with its tradition of arranging informative seminars and workshops, Aurat Raaj recently organized an online session to raise awareness about menstrual education and to train the youth for its advocacy. 

Our partner Tanzila Khan also joined us in the session. She is the founder of Girlythings..pk, which is a disabled-friendly application providing women with sanitary products and urgent menstrual kits. During the meeting, Khan shared her experience with menstruation and the reason that led her to become an agent of making sanitary products accessible to all women. Moreover, she shed light on the significance of being aware of menstruation ourselves and contributing to its awareness amongst other people as well. 

Participants of the session included young people from all over Pakistan who were motivated and ready to play their part to break the stigma attached to the natural process of menstruation. 

The session continued with an engaging virtual scavenger hunt based on the questions revolving around periods, followed by a meditation activity. Then, a discussion on barriers regarding safe and healthy menstruation took place. Participants shared their experiences as well and were vocal about the economical, religious, social, and many other obstacles. 

Tanzila stressed the importance of resolving the menstrual hygiene problem and its connection with period poverty and mentioned: “79% of Pakistani women do not manage their periods hygienically”. 

Improved menstrual hygiene has a positive relationship with sustainability. It decreases the number of girls dropping out from schools, lesser health issues, and proper disposal also benefits the environment. This way, someone working for menstrual hygiene awareness directly contributes to some of the Sustainable Development Goals as well.

Later on, Saba Khalid from Aurat Raaj discussed the types of menstrual advocacy that include but are not limited to advocacy through art, social media, family and friends gatherings as well as through fundraising for making menstrual products accessible for girls. Saba motivated the young participants to become advocates for menstrual education and suggested that they can easily start it by initiating discussions amongst family members or in classrooms.

Saba talked about her contribution by using technology for awareness. She created a chatbot called Raaji that has several topics regarding menstrual education embedded in it. The session concluded with young members sharing how the training helped them and also presented their ideas for playing their role in menstrual education and hygiene awareness to become changemakers and #RaajiPeriodChampion.