Introduction
Visible Impact has been celebrating menstruation hygiene day since the beginning by conducting different programs to advocate safer and healthier menstruation. This year on 28th May, 2020 marking menstruation hygiene day, Visible Impact organized activities through social media due to the restrictions of COVID-19 pandemic.
Activities conducted on MHD 2020
Doodle It! Contest
Doodle It contest is a way of expressing your thoughts and experiences related to menstruation in the form of art. The participants were to choose one from five given templates and doodle on menstruation. Five doodle templates included menstrual cup, sanitary pad, menstrual beads, female internal reproductive organ, and icon representing menstrual blood. 30 participants engaged in the contest expressing their experiences, opinions, and views regarding each template they choose.
Pass The Pad -Tiktok Challenge
Using the TikTok for a social cause, Visible Impact organized “ Pass the Pad Challenge” which is another version of Pass the brush challenge that is famous in TikTok. The contest was aimed to unveil the creativity of the participants using sanitary pads with their friends and family in the form of TikTok videos. There were a total of 8 TikTok videos that were submitted in the challenge where participants showcased myths around menstruation, the role of men in menstruation, menstruation as a means of celebration, etc. in their videos.
Period Memes
Applying the fun factor to bust out the myths regarding menstruation, Visible Impact published different period memes in its social media handles. Taboos that are still existing in our society like prohibition to enter the temple, discontinuation by the cow to give milk if touched by menstruators etc. were debunked using humor.
Chit-chat with the influencers
Visible impact to discover experiences, persuasion, and perspective of different influencers, introduced a series of episodes of chit-chat with influencers. Episode one covered the period experiences of Juliana Shrestha, a travel enthusiast where she shared challenges confronted during traveling like the limited presence of toilets, access to clean water, and stigmas prevailing in different places especially chhaupadi in sudurpaschim province. She also highlighted on leading the conversation of sustainable products from her friend circle to wider audiences through social media as her part of an action for this year menstruation hygiene day.
Similarly, the second episode addressed the role of men in menstruation in a conversation with Visal, a food blogger by passion. Likewise, he emphasized on the importance of women’s presence on the decision-making table for better policies regarding menstrual health management. Sabin Karki, popularly known as Beest on our third episode sharing his thoughts on menstruation stated that menstruation should be normalized and youths can play a crucial role in normalization. Also, Miss Nepal World 2019, Anushka Shrestha shared her experience with period stigma, menstrual products, and opinions on periods adding the importance of incorporation of menstrual hygiene management in school curriculum in conversation with her in our fourth episode. In our fifth episode with Dayahang Rai, an actor stated that its time that we all should change the mindset and view menstruation as a normal process so that we can create a better physical environment and mental well being for all menstruators.
Malvika Subba, a renowned media personality shares her opinions regarding the role of educational institutions in bringing down the dropout rate of girls during her menstruation. Proper sanitation in toilets, the arrangement of menstrual products in school, establishment of nursing corner in school where girls can rest during her period and choosing one senior girl in each class as period captain where girls having problems regarding menstruation can easily reach out to them for help are certain things she mentioned in her conversation regarding the role of educational institutions. In the last episode with Bandana Rana, vice president of the CEDAW committee and a pioneer advocate for women rights shared her experience as a girl, woman, mother, and advocate along with some insights on policies around women rights.
Our impact
With the series of activities for a week in social media, we were able to broach the conversation around menstruation. Doodle and pass the pad challenge served as a medium to speak about menstruation in the shape of art or videos. Period memes facilitated to debunk myths about menstruation while conversation with influencers brought different insights regarding menstruation.
