Red, the colour of shame
Almost 2 billion women in the world are menstruating, but the subject of menstruation, despite an increase in liberal thinking, has been regarded as embarrassing or unremarkable. This is changing thanks to the world's first extensive report 'A bloody problem. Menstrual poverty: why and how we need to end it', which seeks to analyse the menstrual health and hygiene sector and effective interventions to combat menstrual poverty worldwide. The main aim of the report is for researchers, experts, organisations and philanthropists to work together to help women and girls as quickly as possible, while at the same time increasing the wealth of evidence in the Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) sector. The problem is huge. It affects at least half a billion women and girls. This means that one in four women/girls cannot fully take care of their hygiene during their period. Or they do not have access to menstrual supplies. Either there are no conditions for washing or changing their sanitary towels, or they are made to feel embarrassed, ridiculed or rejected by the community. The research considered four main criteria necessary to make decent menstruation possible. The first is access to hygiene products. The second is access to water and safe, hygienic places to change and dispose of hygienic materials. The third is access to education on menstruation and how to cope with periods. The fourth criterion is a favourable environment in which the menstruating woman is not stigmatised or exposed to distress.
Meeting these criteria - which affect all aspects of life, from psychosocial to economic to educational - allows a woman to live with dignity, in health and equality with men.
The authors of the report pointed out that there is still a lack of data to determine the extent of menstrual poverty and effective ways to reduce it. This is one of the reasons why the fight against menstrual poverty is underfunded.
- One of the most important first steps is to determine what are the most effective methods and to identify the organisations which use them. This information is in our report. This will help donors and national governments to tackle the problem better than ever before," said David Goldberg, co-founder and head of Founders Pledge, an organisation that brings together philanthropist entrepreneurs and provides them with tools to help effectively. - I would like to encourage all philanthropists to join Mrs Kulczyk. A united and coordinated approach makes it possible to solve the problem of menstrual poverty," he adds. Why does Goldberg mention a Polish entrepreneur and activist? Because the report is the first outcome of her cooperation with Founders Pledge. At the same time, Dominika Kulczyk has been dealing with menstrual poverty for a long time, in Kenya and Nepal, but also in Poland. The outcomes of this are documentary films or earlier research on menstrual poverty in Poland. Their results correspond to the wider picture of the ‘Bloody Problem’. - As many as 18% of women and girls in Poland have, for various reasons, problems with access to appropriate tampons and sanitary towels.
The article was published in "Wolna Sobota” of "Gazeta Wyborcza” on 17 October 2020
