Emilia Kaczmarek, Magdalena Demczak and Julia Kaffka 1.5 years ago, while still in secondary school, started to implement the social project “Action Menstruation”, the aim of which was to raise money for the purchase of a thousand menstrual cups for those in need. The girls managed to collect 15 thousand. zloty.
The social project turned into an organization and today Emilia, Magdalena and Julia create the first foundation in Poland whose main statutory goal is to fight menstrual poverty. “Akcja Menstruacja” also organizes the project “Hey, girls!”. They deliver boxes for hygiene products to schools so that teenagers do not have to miss school anymore due to their period.
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Urszula Abucewicz, Gazeta.pl Woman: When I went to school, it was said for my period that my aunt from America came. Now what terms are used?
Emilia Kaczmarek: I always said I have my period. The strongest word I’ve heard is “these days”. I did not use any euphemisms. Period is a period, although I know it is not the norm. What makes me very happy, some people are starting to use the phrase: “I have a monthly menstrual action”.
Menstruation remains a taboo subject. And not only in Poland. In many cultures, menstruating women are still considered unclean.
It is still a big problem related to poverty in various cultures. Women in Nepal are thrown out of the house during their period. In Africa, they have to hide that they are bleeding. Some girls, not wanting to dirty the bedding, dig a hole in the ground, place the back of the body in it, spend the night there, and then bury it in the morning so that no blood can be seen.
Our country is not free from the taboos about menstruation. And that doesn’t make things any easier for us, but I think the breakthrough is slowly taking place and I hope it only gets better.
There are also superstitions that, for example, you cannot pickle cucumbers during menstruation.
This is clearly visible in the report of the Dominika Kulczyk Foundation on menstruation, which was carried out in Poland, and its results were known in February. The percentages, as well as the differentiation between young and adult people, show a generation difference. I must honestly admit that before reading this report, I had no idea that I shouldn’t have pickled cucumbers with my period. Only then did I come across this superstition.
I must admit that the report on Poland helped us a lot. When we started our activity and talked about the problem, at the end of the discussion, we always heard: “please show the data”, and then we said that no one has them yet, that no one has conducted such research, and we cannot afford to conduct it ourselves.
Girls break taboos about menstrual poverty Facebook.com / #ActionMenstruation
Returning, however, to superstition. Unfortunately, they are still alive. A gynecologist friend of mine told me that he spends his entire studies in college debunking the myths surrounding menstruation. Some of the students were surprised. I was lucky not to be subjected to them.
What are these other myths?
That you can’t go to the dentist when you have your period, you can’t have sex, and if you do, you won’t get pregnant. And that menstrual blood is full of dangerous germs and toxins.
From the report entitled The “blood problem” shows that one in five women in the world cannot afford to buy hygiene products. And when I read this data, I think to myself that such situations occur in India, Africa, but not in Poland.
The first information about menstrual poverty came to me from the United States, then from Great Britain, and then I read that the problem also affects women from the countries of the Global South. We assume that in poor regions such as India or Africa, almost everything is missing. So it is logical that when someone cannot afford food, neither can sanitary napkins. It turns out that the more developed countries are not affected by the problem.
How did you find out that menstrual poverty affects the United States?
I was looking for an idea for a social project, which I had to implement as part of a development program with the girls with whom we are currently creating the foundation’s board. So I was more sensitive to the social problems around me.
When I was browsing social media, I found a post by Mrs. Menstruation. Attached to it was a video about the United States that showed how women in a homelessness crisis are going through a period. It was then that I heard about menstrual poverty. It was a heartbreaking discovery for me. I began to wonder if this is the case in Poland.
When I typed “menstrual poverty” into the browser, I saw there was a hole. At the turn of April and May 2019, there was practically no mention of menstrual poverty. I have jumped a few records about Great Britain. Hence, I found out that in the UK, lack of access to menstrual supplies is a serious problem. As I started reading, I found out that the British government introduced sanitary pads in all schools. There was no information about Poland.
So when I shared my thoughts with the girls, Magda remembered a situation from a year ago. She had a few sanitary pads left from another project, so she decided to take them to her local orphanage, and she had never seen anyone enjoy a packet of sanitary pads this much. This image stayed in it. This was our first lead.
What a joy #ActionMenstruation
Girlfriends using socks. Lady from PE giving sanitary pads to her students. Do these cases really happen?
I’m not making these stories up. Various people write to our foundation. Due to the fact that we started operating in schools, many of these situations are problems at school.
When we talk to the people who visit us, we hear: “How good that the ladies are here, because I was earlier” … and this is where the story begins.
What’s the story?
One of the last ones, shocking for me, was told by a teacher who teaches in a gastronomic technical college. The school rules that girls buy their own products for practical cooking lessons. The teacher noticed that they do not come to class regularly when they have their period. They spend the money to buy products to buy sanitary napkins. Of course, we already operate in this technical school.
This is a touching story for me because it shows that the lack of access to menstrual supplies affects the quality of education. How these girls will be educated, because they will miss some of these classes in a year.
Adults are also affected. We received information from the community organization Dom Kultury, which deals with animation activities for people detained in Grochów, that prisoners were entitled to 20 sanitary napkins for a period of time. No matter what the period is, how long it lasts – they all get the same constant number of pads. This is also a big problem.
I wonder how did you break your inhibitions to talk openly about this? Or maybe you didn’t have a problem with that?
There was no fear in us. From the beginning, we entered the mode of social activities for the benefit of people in need. It was help that came first. And whether we would distribute food or sanitary pads – it has the same weight for us.
There was no inhibition in us to go to the radio and start talking about it. But of course, when I first came to my grandparents and had to tell them about my new project, there was a moment of silence. There was consternation. Now I can confidently say that my whole family is very open. My grandfather regularly sends me period articles that appear in the press, and my grandmother is fascinated by menstrual cups. When I started telling her about types, colors, types – she was delighted. I think this is a breakout issue.
Do your actions meet with hatred?
The phrase “menstrual persons” evokes strong emotions. At first, the slogan “menstrual poverty” aroused similar reactions. I think each of us will remember for the rest of our lives when the first article on this topic was published and we read the first comments. It has already changed and I think it will change. I think it’s a matter of time to listen.
Social awareness is changing. However, menstruation is still a source of ridicule and persecution.
This problem is definitely visible among young people. Recently a girl wrote to us asking: “Do you see that I have my period? The boys laugh at me that I definitely have”. How can they know about it ?! There is a stigma here. These boys were probably educated at home and brought up in the broadly understood pop culture that if a girl or a woman is in a bad mood, she must have her period and unfortunately they reproduce these harmful patterns. I think that is still a problem, and education is needed here, which is sometimes lacking.
The study shows that over 40 percent. of women and girls directly say that in the family home there was no mention of menstruation, and for 23 percent these conversations are embarrassing.
Unfortunately it is so. The older generation was brought up in silence, in a veil of silence around the period. Most people feel that this is my private business. Nobody should know about it, much less talk about it. Inhibitions are therefore passed on to daughters or sons, because this problem is still alive regardless of gender.
In the primary schools we work with, we had some unpleasant situations. The parents came and said that they do not want their daughter, who is in the 6th grade, to see a sanitary napkin in the toilet, because she does not know what it is yet.
As part of the Hey girls project, containers for sanitary napkins are appearing in schools #ActionMenstruation
You run the campaign “Hey girls” in schools. What is it about? And what is the interest in it?
We put boxes for sanitary pads in school toilets. We are currently in 120 schools. In the next hundred branches there are posters about our action with a pocket for a sanitary napkin. More are coming to us. I hope that we will reach 500 schools by the end of the school year.
Were most of them schools from large urban centers?
It was true in the first wave of applications. Fortunately, through word of mouth information about our campaign also reached small towns, which are in fact our priority. We get there and never refuse to help. The teachers tell us directly that it is a big problem in smaller towns. So we really care about getting there.
You have also launched periodical help points.
Yes, these are open lockers where our volunteers regularly place sanitary napkins and tampons, so that adults can also use them.
What about menstrual cups? In one of your interviews you said that for many women, using them is like going into space.
Certainly, we would like to introduce a wider scale of activities in subsidizing menstrual cups, because that is where we started our adventure with the topic of menstrual poverty. Our first social project was to collect money for cups, then we took the idea a bit away because the schools contacted us. Now we have a pandemic, so it’s hard to educate how to use them, what size to choose, and when can they be used [dopiero od 14. roku życia – przyp. red.]. We would really like to deal with the promotion of the cups, because it is a reusable solution, which is ecological and reduces costs during the life.
When we cooperated with the Noble Pack and sent cups, we received a request for pads. It turned out that the women under the care of the foundation still use cotton wool. For them, the transition from cotton wool to cup is too much of a jump. It’s like a flight into space. So you have to approach it gradually, but from experience we already know, after distributing a thousand cups, that many people use this solution and are satisfied with it.
Source: Gazeta
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
