women health
Shame no more, it’s my right to
get proper menstrual hygiene
Women across the world including India have been unfairly looked down due to their
menstrual cycles and other regular health complications. Only social awareness can be the
key to break such stereotypical narratives
BY BIOVOICE CORRESPONDENT
MULTIMEDIA
A
Credits: Nancy Muller, Senior Program Officer, Devices and Tools Program, PATH
t the recently held Women
Deliver 2016 conference in
Copenhagen on May 16–19,
the women from various
nations gathered to voice their
opinions on the issues concerning
women health. It explored critical
factors of what it takes to make
maternal and new-born health
innovations actionable, and to
successfully and sustainably scale
them to save the lives of women and
children. Women Deliver is one of the
world’s largest gatherings of
policymakers, advocates, and
researchers focused exclusively on
32
BioVoiceNews | June 2016
Nancy Muller’s TED Talk
women’s health and empowerment.
One of the interesting booths at the
conference was that of PATH which
displayed “She’s Just Getting
Started”, a creative suite of materials
to initiate a dialogue on the need for
effective menstrual care products for
girls and women and approaches to
improve menstrual health.
“Imagine that you’re a woman
experiencing a menstrual cycle with
no privacy to manage it, no one to
talk to, and no clean materials to
manage your period with dignity,
asks Nancy Muller who is the Senior
Program Officer at PATH.
“In South Africa, and in many poor
countries around the world,
menstruation is rarely talked about,
and can be a source of stress and
embarrassment, as well as pose a
safety risk for girls and women. In
addition to the roughly 2.4 billion
people who lack access to basic
sanitation, and the nearly 1 billion
who must defecate in the open, there
is a need to call attention to the often
taboo topic of menstruation, adds
Nancy whose organization was one of
the major sponsor of the conference.