Napkins to the needy: Rotaract Club of GCT vows to fight period poverty

Coimbatore: Even as we are in 2021, Menstruation is still considered as a taboo across various cultures, and adolescent girls, still lack awareness on menstrual hygiene practices and its impact on their health.

While several NGOs are fighting against such taboos and alienate cultural myths surrounding it, its paramount that the first step towards it should be to provide access to napkins to the underprivileged adolescent girls and women.

Taking their first step towards "Let's fight period poverty", the members of the Rotaract Club Of Government College of Technology (GCT) Coimbatore, have initiated a project to collect napkins from the girls hostel of their college and provided it to the needy.

With International woman's day around the corner, GCT’s Women empowerment Director Cell have started this initiative to create an awareness on period poverty, aiming to benefit underprivileged girls and women who are unable to accessnapkins during menstruation.

"A total of 41 sanitary napkins packets were collected from the GCT girl's hostel and provided to girls at Mariyalaya orphanage, in Ganapathipudur, Coimbatore. Earlier, through various initiatives we have provided rice and other basic commodities to multiple orphanages in Coimbatore. But, this initiative was derived to commemorate the upcoming 2021 women's day by creating awareness on menstrual hygiene, by imbibing the knowledge on usage of sanitary napkins among girl children. This is a small step to end the period poverty", jointly said Anitha and Nivetha, Chairman and Secretary of Rotaract Club of GCT.

"Several studies have proven that burden of menstruation and cultural practices amid adolescent girls have curtailed their progress in many ways including school absenteeism. However, improvement of access to sanitary napkins and creating awareness on handling periods, can help adolescent girls to attend schools", they said.

The initiative mainly aims to instil the need for menstrual hygiene among underprivileged girls, who according to several studies, use fabrics, rags, sand, ash, newspapers and dried leaves during their menstrual cycle. Such practices not only impacts their health but also hinders their progress by avoiding schools and other activities during their periods, say the organisers.

According to the zealous team members of "Let’s fight period poverty”, they have been brainstorming innovative ideas to spread awareness on menstrual hygiene and reach out to the needy.