Greetings
We are Sitaara, a non profit organisation started by a 15 year old.
When dark clouds of the corona hover over us, menstruators fight another storm.
"It's a luxury!" They said.
"We are already spending so much on dowry, now you want this too?" They said.
"Chee! Don't talk about it here. Keep it to yourself. It's not a priority. Don't you see petrol prices going up? We don't have money for this?" They said.
About 70% of menstruators in India don't have access to even the most decent period products. A number which has been increasing due to covid. The price is around 150 INR which is sometimes the daily salary of an individual. How can we expect them to be able to afford them? No wonder many of them resort to using leaves, ragged cloth, and sometimes even ash. Not telling anyone when they contract fatal diseases and are in pain.
And the 36% who have access to menstrual products, the plastic disposable pad they use harms the environment. A pad takes 500-800 years to decompose.
Being non-breathable, they cause rashes and deprive one of the vital bodily fluids, sucking out important secretions. Also, the pads end up in landfills where workers manually separate them, risking contracting diseases and bacterial infections. These dumped pads wait for animals to tear them open and further contributing to more diseases in the world.
Taboo, that's beyond speakable. The shame is so intense one suffers in silence than breaking the shush and speaking up.
A DIY cloth pad kit would be perfect!
A packet of 3 costs less than 45 INR (Depending on shipping costs) (for context cloth pads in the market cost a minimum of 56 INR for one) if bought from retail which one can use for 18 months or even more, depending on how well one keeps them. Tested for microbial and chemical tests. And sold out 480+ pads.
A unit of transgender under us works.
The design has nada (drawstrings) to tie on the waists. This is quite unconventional but the people in our team who used it said it didn't move much. Usually, cloth pads don't have adhesive at the bottom like disposable pads thus keep moving. Making it an uncomfortable experience.
With the nadas, it helps one do sports and yoga. The pad can hold up to 60ml of liquid and the fabric used is of superior quality. For reference, a menstruater bleed out that much amount of blood in her whole cycle.
For this Sitaara and Edify came about. Sitaara, an organization that started in May 2021, and Edify split from Sitaara in Oct 2021. Edify had many workshops inside being Sitaara and then we realized this mission takes its very own initiative. Thus Edify cam about made by previously parts of Sitaara. There we have interesting games like "Doctor or Not", "X-O's quizzes" to check their learning, "Music-Yoga" and many fun games like these.
Addressing the shame around menstruation and games like "Doctor or Not" help them learn about frowned-upon topics like menstrual diseases. These workshops are targeted toward children helping the next generation throw the taboo out! That's the idea.
This is something about our work.
Regards.
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