Be Girl, project against menstrual poverty, and the stigma and taboos it entails

admin on 26 May 2021

Colombian girls with their Smart Cycle. Retrieved from the website of Be Girl.

Project to combat menstrual poverty, as well as the stigma and the taboos it entails. It consists of an offer of reusable and affordable menstrual products, training workshops and a pendant that helps to monitor the menstrual cycle itself.

Be Girl products consist of reusable menstrual products, such as panties or cloth pads, made of waterproof and absorbing materials that prevent loss and allow for affordable and safe menstruation, both for the environment and for users. They have a useful life of two years, avoiding waste from traditional pads and tampons, as well as being safer, hygienic and more economic in the long term. Its design is comfortable, beautiful, and efficient to respond to the needs of people who menstruate.

The project also offers menstrual cycle knowledge workshops, which include the use of Smart Cycle, a tool that allows one to know the menstrual cycle and its different parts (menstruation, ovulation, maximum fertility day, etc.). It is a pendant that helps track the menstrual cycle and better understand one’s body. These workshops are intended for both girls and boys, to show menstruation as a natural and free of stigmas. They are performed in schools and leisure sites, to make them safer and freer from menstrual taboos.

Be Girl products can also be purchased online, and with the benefits of the sales, the impulsive organizations fund the free distribution of products to girls with few resources.

Characteristics of innovation

Adolescence and youth, Bank of innovations, Group intervention, Independent living, Lab, New model of intervention, Pilot project, Poverty and exclusion, Prediction and prevention, Right of choice of the user, Self-management and participation, User empowerment, Woman

Location

Colombia and 30 countries

Partners/Funders

Be Girl and Plan Internacional

Genesis

In 2012, Colombian designer Diana Sierra, who had worked for brands such as Nike, travelled to Uganda to participate in women’s empowerment projects. There she became aware of the problem of menstrual poverty, which is widespread in poor countries but also among poor families around the world. It was then that she decided to use her experience as a designer to provide a solution to this problem that could be comfortable, efficient and beautiful, making it possible for thousands of girls around the world to live their menstruation in a dignified manner.

Level of implementation

Be Girl is a social enterprise with a large impact, in 2018 it distributed 25,619 menstrual products free of charge to 14 countries in Latin America and Africa. In addition, they did workshops with 19,700 girls and 1,300 children, who improved their knowledge of the menstrual cycle.

It has received several awards such as the Spark Health (2015), the Silver A. Design Award (2015), and the Power Together Award (2019), among others.

In Colombia, the project lasted 6 months (October 2017 – April 2018) and gave attention to 3,636 girls and women in the Bolivar region.

Further information

Propose your innovation

See our selection of innovations

Banc d’innovacions

SmartSocks, socks that detect distress in people with dementia

SmartSocks that enable the detection of risk situations in people with dementia

Manawanui, Self-Directed Support for people with disabilities

Manawanui is a project aimed at enhancing the autonomy and freedom of choice for people with disabilities

Morphic, technology that improves computer accessibility for people with disabilities

Morphic is an application that allows computers to be adapted to the different needs of people with disabilities

V-TOOLS, Virtual Reality Applied to Social Innovation

V-TOOLS is a project that combines technology and social innovation through immersive experiences with the aim of improving the lives of people and communities

Jooay, an app that helps children with disabilities find leisure activities

Jooay is a free app that connects leisure activity offerings with families of children with disabilities

ShareAmi, intergenerational language exchanges through videoconferences

ShareAmi és un programa d’intercanvis lingüístics a través de videoconferències entre persones grans i persones joves que viuen fora del seu país

Positive Sparks, platform to give voice to isolated or excluded young people

admin on 20 April 2021

Youngsters participating in a face-to-face workshop from the project. Retrieved from Bytes’ website.

Youth participation platform which helps to give a voice to young people who are more isolated or excluded, to express their concerns, needs and opinion on the services offered by the community. The platform uses “Machine Learning” to analyse and interpret young people’s responses in a fast and automatic way.

In addition to empowering the most excluded young people and facilitating their participation, Positive Sparks allows social services and organisations working with young people with difficulties (mental health, drug abuse, school drop-out, etc.) to detect deficiencies in services, improve their interventions and identify new needs requiring new responses or services. The platform also offers the Public Administrations to use Positive Sparks for the development of youth-related public policies.

Within this initiative, more specific projects have emerged, such as Rural Sparks, which helps to give a voice to young people with difficulties in rural areas. On the other hand, Positive Sparks is not only a virtual platform, but also organizes workshops and presence activities to better meet young participants and to interact with them at first hand. Workshops are imparted by the Bytes organization in collaboration with other organizations, teaching centres, etc. It is currently a tool only available in English.