The Safe pad Project: Restoring the Dignity of Menstruating Girls in Bangladesh

Nobody deserves the indignity of having to use cow dung, ashes, leaves, newspapers, used socks, old mattress cuttings or rags to catch her menstrual flow. These crude materials are not only ineffective but also unhygienic and uncomfortable in catching menstrual flow. In Dhaka, school going girls of menstrual age are either forced to endure this humiliation or be absent from school. For the brave girls who want to remain in school and build a bright future, a large number of them confess to facing stigma that comes from unhygienic menstrual hygiene management, the odor of improperly managed menstrual blood or shocking stories ofhow they did not know what to do during their first menstrual period. As for those who choose the easy way out, formative research has uncovered shocking statistics of adolescent young girls missing up to 3.5 million learning days per month in Dhaka due to menstruation. Moreover, this state of affairs is worsened by the lack of information on menstrual matters as well as a deep culture of taboos, myths and misconceptions surrounding menstruation and menstrual blood.