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

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Raaji, chatbot to inform and empower girls and women

admin on 21 March 2021

Girls using the chat-bot Raaji. Retrieved from Aurat Raaj’s website.

Chat-bot that informs girls and women about gender issues and helps them empower and defend their rights. It uses a virtual character, Raaji, which is able to answer questions and have a conversation through artificial intelligence algorithms. It provides information on issues considered taboo which are of great importance to female empowerment, such as issues of reproductive health, security or economic autonomy. In addition, a team of professionals detects if there are cases that require professional intervention and are derived from them to the most appropriate services.

The Pakistani organization that has developed it, Aurat Raaj, also collaborates with schools and social organizations to make workshops and activities to empower women and girls, and to try to break some stigma surrounding topics such as menstrual hygiene. To further expand this task, they have created an animated series where the main character, Raaji, passes through different situations considered taboo but which are part of the day-to-day life of many girls. In this way, girls see themselves in a character that they identify with, who normalizes and overcomes these situations, encouraging them to take the initiative through activities such as training courses, personal defence, etc.

Chat-bot is a versatile tool available in English and Urdu, and has also been adapted to Covid-19 to provide reliable information about the disease for girls and boys, in an easy way. Raaji is a sample of how technology can help expand and take the work of social organisations further, creating a tool that is easy to access and which allows the easy and private reporting of issues of great importance and on which there are taboos or misinformation.