Menstrual hygiene awareness workshop with free sanitary napkins distribution…

An important & intrinsic part of our holistic development programs is to focus on health & general well-being of women. Keeping in mind the personal health of women, we conduct health camps & awareness programs from time to time. Despite so many efforts by Government & other women-centric agencies, menstrual hygiene still remains an area of concern amongst poor & illiterate women.

SETU works with various women in slums of Gwalior to make them economically self-sustainable. This has been made possible by teaching them sewing & hand-crafting skills and then providing them with sustainable livelihood opportunities.

From a recent survey conducted by our team, it was found that menstrual hygiene was still a neglected field among the local women. Most of the girls in that area had left their education after mid-school. Most women were unable to fulfill even their basic needs. Hence the health conditions were also very poor in the area.

We came to know that a lot of women were aware of sanitary napkins but due to lack of money they usually used cloth and rarely used napkins. Some of them were unaware of the sanitary napkin usage, so our team updated them about the importance of same. They were informed about how any carelessness may lead to several diseases and infection.

This community mobilization process took 4 days and a total of 6 members completed this program, along with the help of locals.

After research and discussion with the local women, the team decided to conduct the camp in Galla Nagar Kothar, Thathipur ward no. 23. About 500 women and girls attended the camp & we distributed 2400 total no. of packets, completely free of cost. This means that most women will not need to buy these for 5 upcoming months.

The program was held under the guidance of Society board member & Advocate Mr. S.K. Agarwal. We appreciate the presence and guidance of Mr. S.K. Agarwal and Ms Niharika Sharma, Development officer of LIC. The was a remarkable contribution of SETU team – Mr. L.R Kaushal, Jitendra Singh, Rekha Kaul, Pushpa, Rani, Brijlata. With the help of the team and the vision of Ms Rashmi Dhariwal and Mr. Devendra Dhariwal, the program was successfully completed.