No Shame to Bleed Project

Youth Activism

“Sarathi” is a team of 10 diverse young and energetic people recruited by Visible Impact for its “No Shame to Bleed” Campaign. Sarathis are recruited for one year. During the entire period of the program, Sarathis are provided with opportunities to develop themselves professionally and also engage in volunteering activities to conduct school-based menstrual health management workshops. Besides workshops conduction they also actively participate in blog writing, video making, and case story writing. Currently, Visible Impact is engaging its sixth batch of Sarathis.

Training of Trainers (ToT) designed for Sarathis is held for three days where they are trained on various aspects of Menstrual Health Management (MHM). In addition, a specific session linking menstruation and disability is also included, highlighting key menstrual issues of persons with disabilities and things to be considered while organizing a workshop for the low vision and visually impaired persons with a special focus on the content. Following the workshop, Sarathis in pairs conduct workshops on Menstrual Health Management in schools across Kathmandu Valley and other districts.

Sarathis have been writing and sharing their stories about concurrent issues to their first menstruation experience. These are published as blogs on the organizations' website and shared in our social media accounts. Also, Visible Impact has established a system of learning through sharing within the organization. As part of the experience of Sarathi, they are provided opportunities to participate in learning circles. The learning circles are provided in different areas to develop their technical skills and also for their personal development. 

Similarly, Visible Impact marks International Menstrual Hygiene Day by organizing various competitions, and webinars on digital platforms and sharing relevant content through social media pages. Visim has organized inter-school speech competitions, art competitions, TikTok challenges, and photo and caption writing competitions. 

Research on Menstrual Health Friendliness of School

Visible Impact conducted a research entitled “A Study to Assess the Menstrual Health Friendliness of Schools in Kathmandu Valley” realizing that there is a need for a comprehensive study on menstrual health friendliness of the schools examining the infrastructural challenges as well as the school environment as a whole. The specific objectives were to assess the status of infrastructures and the perception of the school authorities and students to determine the menstrual health friendliness of schools and to assess the association between socio-cultural factors and the menstrual health friendliness score of the school. This analytical cross-sectional study collected both qualitative and quantitative data from 14 public and private schools in Kathmandu Valley.

According to the study, 12 years old was the typical age at which menarche began. Compared to 85.8% of private schools, sanitary pads were supplied inside public schools in 99.9% of cases. The study's observational results indicate that 93.33% of the restrooms in schools were not disable-friendly. Qualitative research shows that none of the schools stressed cleanliness, and the girls complained that they couldn't use the restrooms because of how filthy they were. The association between the perception of male/female teachers/friends including junior/senior students, and absenteeism in schools was significant at p–value <0.05.  

Our Impact

Through the No Shame to Bleed project, Visim has successfully recruited and trained 60 volunteers since 2016. Sarathis have been provided with opportunities to develop both their personal and professional skills through engagement in consultations, learning circles, and opportunities to attend learning programs organized by different institutions as well. A total of 144 menstrual health workshops have been conducted in 142 schools in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Tanahun, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk, Palpa, Jhapa, and Solukumbu districts reaching out to more than 4000 students.