International Women's Day Event

I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday celebrating International Women's Day.

We at AarogyaSeva were lucky enough to have 6 artists come down yesterday to help decorate the walls of our soon to be open AarogyaSeva Karuna Clinic right near the Siddaoura Lalbagh Gate.

As Poornima, one of our artists said, it was bridging art and health via an Art to Heart Collective. Each artist had her own style and interpretation of the heart and it all come together in such beautiful way.

Two of the artists are still working on their pieces and photos will be posted of their completed works in the come week.

The kids in the neighbourhood come by throughout the day and really enjoyed watching the artists work. In fact some of the time they had too much fun just hanging out inside the clinic.

We were honoured to also run the trailer to Meryll a story about a young girl who lives in seclusion until when a series of events open a dark alley that bring back her worst nightmares to life.

We also ran an impromptu community session with thanks to Dr Karishma Kagod who spoke to women in the neighbourhood about giving themselves a voice and looking after themselves as they are the centre of the community and their families.  Dr Karishma is a plastic surgeon who is head of burns unit at Kolar Medical College.

Special thanks to Madhu from By the River who helped give thanks to our artists.  If you're after a storyteller please feel free to connect with her at:  By the River

I look forward for the clinic to be finished and for the community to be able to use the space.

You may have also noticed that we launched our campaign yesterday with the aim of providing 250 refugees with sanitary napkins for $20 per person.   Please support this worthwhile cause:  AarogyaSeva: Health, Dignity for female refugees

If you would like to volunteer or contact the author please drop us a line at Volunteer@aarogyaseva.org

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AarogyaSeva and AarogyaSeva does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

 

March 8 International Women's Day Event

International Women's began with women protesting against wages and conditions within the textile industry at the turn of the 20th Century and has since grown into a global movement on March 8th. 

Annually around the world events are held that celebrate women’s contribution to society from fun runs, breakfast panels, gala events to festivals. 

We are excited to announce that AarogyaSeva will conducting an event at our soon to be open new AarogyaSeva Clinic- AarogyaSeva Karuna Clinic opposite the Lalbagh Siddapura gate on International Women’s Day.

The new AarogyaSeva Clinic centre will not only be a free clinic but also a prosthetic limb centre. Disability is an important public health problem in India with 2.6 million people living with a disability according to the 2011 census.

The clinic will house a 3-D printer with a focus on creation of upper limb prosthesis for children.   The recipients will be involved in designing, printing and assembling the limb making it an experiential and empowering process. 

It is intended that in collaboration with our partner organisations- The Challenging Ones, Association of People with Disability, IEEE, BMS College of Engineering and Rochester Institute of Technology least 25 limbs will be created in the first year.  

In additional we are seeking to use the space to provide workshops, education and awareness on 3D printing and health as well as allowing students and innovators to experiment with creating low cost medical solutions.

So please come along on March 8th and see the new clinic and support the female artists! Looking forward to seeing you all there. 

If you are interested in learning more or providing assistance please write to us at  Volunteer@aarogyaseva.org

Sanitary Napkins and Feminine Hygiene

Seeing the sanitary napkins women empowerment project whilst as part of 2016 Medical Yatra made me want to look into this topic a bit more.

For someone from a developed country we do not think much with regards to this area of female hygiene nor do we generally have any issues with access to sanitary napkins or tampons. Yet many women around the world still use scraps of dirty cloths which they cannot clean or sanitise properly.  Alarmingly I read that up to 70% of all reproductive diseases in India are caused by poor menstrual hygiene.

For so many women around the world menstruation is still a taboo subject with many restrictions placed on the women particularly around isolation as they are considered unclean.  Yet I can see why the commercially available products are not used openly and freely as women especially in rural villages have trouble to access, afford and dispose of them properly.  Further to this there is still much lacking on education on menstruation and female hygiene.

Fortunately there are several different projects currently in place using different approaches to address this issue including the use of cloths and menstrual cups.

This is the first time I’ve come across menstrual cups like SheCup or Ruby Cup. Both use a medical grade silicon cup which is inserted in the vagina like a tampon. The benefits of these are that they are much cheaper and better for the environment than commercially available sanitary napkins.   

Another project/initiative is Goonj’s Not Just a Piece of Cloth (NJPC) which was established in 2005 and has expanded globally.  They use old/discarded cloth to create reusable sanitary napkins and use this as platform to engage and educate about female hygiene whilst also providing job opportunities.  

The basis of the project that I saw at the Gram Seva Trust Hospital is related to the work Arunachalam Muruganantham and his company Jayaashree Industries.  What is particularly inspiring about Arunachalam is that he did not finish high school and that what began as a way to impress his new bride has evolved to something so much more which included him testing sanitary pads himself with the use of animal blood. I highly recommend watching Arunachalam TED talk from 2012. A documentary called 'Menstrual Man' has been created about him and his work.

What I love about the project I saw is that it is run by women for the women giving them a much needed low cost solution and income. Furthermore the pads are biodegradable reducing our impact on the environment particularly given that waste disposal is another burden particularly in rural areas.

As with all things I believe that a variety of different solutions are needed to address this issue as there is never a one size fits all to any problem.

I’d like to leave you all with an amusing advertisement we have in Australia which shows the marked difference between the countries views on the topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg2-ZzSBl5s

Links on that mentioned above can be found below.

• RubyCup www.ruby-cup.com
• SheCup www.shecup.com
• Goonj NJPC http://njpc.goonj.org/
• Arunachalam's TED talk https://www.ted.com/talks/arunachalam_muruganantham_how_i_started_a_sanitary_napkin_revolution?language=en
• 'Menstrual Man" Documentary http://www.menstrualman.com/  
• Arunachalam's company Jayaashree Industries http://newinventions.in/

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AarogyaSeva and AarogyaSeva does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

To get in touch with the author or to join our team write to us at – Volunteer@aarogyaseva.org