Ok, I think everyone in my inner circle of friends knows this about me, but I’m all about women empowerment and respect, and after yesterday’s site visit to the Women’s Welfare Society in South Mumbai, I really need to touch on the topic of menstruation in India. I’ll be honest, I wrestled around about writing on the topic, but I believe there is an importance to the issue.
I just want to forewarn the men that read this blog, if you are not comfortable reading about menstruation and the societal gender bias in relations to development of women’s issues, I advise you to stop reading at this point.
To start, my mother raised me on the belief to never allow my gender be my Achilles’ heel. Growing up with four brothers, I wasn’t raised like all typical girls. I still wore my pigtails and pretty pink dresses, but my mom raised me to be tough just like the boys. So when little Jenn transformed and entered to adulthood Jenn (this is as subtle as I can go), my mother taught me to embrace my femininity and the wonderful responsibilities of womanhood that include the cramps, the bloating, the headaches, and the crazy cravings that occur on the first and second day. When a woman gets her period 12 times a year (less, if on birth control), she becomes a pro. Unfortunately, women outside our western culture are not so lucky and privilege when our Aunt Flow comes to visit once a month.
Yesterday, I was very lucky and privileged to visit the Women’s Welfare Society in the south part of Mumbai. The Women’s Welfare Society is a community-based organization supported by the Social Activities Integration (SAI) that works with sex workers. Our group was very privilege to provide site training on the topics of menstruation, menopause, and breast cancer to community outreach workers who go out on the field every day and work in helping sex workers in providing HIV/AIDS health services, vocational training, prevention/rehabilitation for substance abuse, and other array of programs including the sale of their own products for income generation, which is a core aspect of social entrepreneurship and self-organization sustainability.
The reason why I am blogging about menstruation is because it became a hot topic. In India, women sex workers who cannot afford the use of maxi pads or tampons, use sponges. We are still unsure, but we suspect that kitchen sponges are used. For the women in my group, including myself, we were shocked. What we take advantage in our western, American culture is out of reach for many poor women in India that cannot afford these resources. As public health practitioners in-training, we asked questions and wanted answers. The use of the kitchen sponge as a method to collect menstruation flow is a health hazard that includes the growth of bacteria and an array of other infections, especially if the sponge is not wash and dried in a proper matter.
Overall, the point that I want to make and I have seen this in other cultures where women issues are also a grave concern is that a girl that is about to enter womanhood should not face the obstacles in not being able to afford proper sanitary products in every race and economic stature level.
After yesterday’s site visit, my brain started to run a thousand miles per hour and I started to think on how I can use social entrepreneurship and the topic of providing proper sanitary products for poor women around the world. A light bulb turned on, and I started to think how cool would it be to donate the Diva cup (a silicone cup that collects menstruation flow) or reusable cloth maxi pad from the manufacturers to the community-based organizations and the community-based organizations can sell them at discount price or even provide them free as a form of self-sustainability.
As a woman, I find it as a gift that I get my period once a months and the beauty that I can reproduce life. Education is vital for change. The idea just because a girl or woman cannot afford sanitary products when she has her period and cannot to go to school or left with the last resort to use a kitchen sponge is backward for a country that is able to provide top IT technology around the world.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Monday, August 16, 2010
Haiti: Part I
As you may have noticed, I created this blog a year ago to document my travels to South Africa, United Emirates of Arab, and Greece. I have not used it and it is until now that I decided to actually use it for my trip to Haiti. In less than five days, I will be on an airplane flying out from John F. Kennedy airport to Port-au-Prince. I had orientation last Saturday evening for the trip, and the first thing that was said to us, “You’re going to war. If this is not for you, back out now.” As I looked at everyone in the room, there was a moment of silence and an underlying sense of sodality that everyone was here for one goal: to help.
I will be in Haiti for seven days with a medical mission endorsed by the organization, Concerned Diaspora, which is under the umbrella of NJ for Haiti. During those seven days, I will be in Carrefour,alongside doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals in food distribution, building houses, and assist at the medical clinics within the tent communities, as well, visit schools and orphanages. Our mornings will start at 5:30am and end at 9:00pm. Because water is like gold in Haiti, there will be days where our group might not shower. We were warned that we run the risk of contracting any type of infectious disease such as scabies and to be very cautious in what we touch or drink. As for safety, we will have body guards to protect us. In case, an earthquake happens again or any other natural disaster, we must carry our passports at all times to ensure we immediately return on the spot to the United States.
Working with the HIV/AIDS population through the Philani organization in Khayelitsha last summer has taught me in how to mentally prepare myself in what I will inevitably see in Haiti. One of the key elements that I have learned is to emotionally insulate and detach myself when I am out in the field and to make sure that my bias will not intervene in the important work that I will do.
I am not a stranger in witnessing the worst of humanity and in the oddest blessing, I am thankful to have spent some of my childhood summers in El Salvador. If it was not for my experience as a child in El Salvador during the civil war and afterwards, my life would have not been set in this path to help the underprivileged. The great thing about roughing it out, is that it is one of the most incredible lessons in humbleness. As I always like to tell my close circle of friends, I have been entrusted with the life-calling and honor to help others, but most importantly, the privilege to learn from them and to be allowed in their lives.
I am really excited that my experience in Haiti will stimulate me academically when I begin studies as a Global Public Health student at George Washington University, and how it will also assist the research of one of my Rutgers’ professor’s books on crisis management. At a practitioner level, I am going to be observing what actions the NGO’s are doing to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera and sanitary measures. What’s being done to mobilize the development of transferring the population from tent communities before they become slums? Most especially, how the money is being put into good use or misuse after millions of dollars have been contributed in Haiti’s rehabilitation within the last 8 months.
I have also been trying to learn a few common Haitian Creole phrases. At the moment, I have learned to say:
Kijan ou rele? –What’s your name?
Kijan ou santi ou? – How do you feel?
Thank God I am bilingual in Spanish and that I studied some French and Italian in college because many of the words in Haitian Creole descend from the romance languages. I am looking forward that I will be speaking some Haitian Creole when I return back home. Unlike in South Korea, I had such a difficult time learning the language. While in South Africa, the only words that I learned in Xhosa were Mazungo, which means, white person, and Enkosi, which means thank you.
Overall,it is an adventurous opportunity to immense myself in a culture and to learn from it. In any destruction there is forgiveness and beauty, and as humans, we must be allowed to be transformed by it. Still, away from the destruction, I am looking forward to waking up and falling asleep under the Haitian sky because there is a sense of peace and rebirth. If you ever have the privilege to see the morning sunrise. You will notice that there is a moment of transition throughout the landscape. At the brevity of that moment, the morning sun infiltrates through the night sky from the right side, and from the left side, you will see the pitch darkness of the night. It is at this brevity of moment, in which Haiti stands. I believe that in the small contribution I take part in will continue to assist in the country's nation-building.
Until then, I am packing for my trip, packing for my move to Washington, D.C., and enjoying my time at home with my family and my close circle of friends who have been a great support system in all of my endeavors.
I will be in Haiti for seven days with a medical mission endorsed by the organization, Concerned Diaspora, which is under the umbrella of NJ for Haiti. During those seven days, I will be in Carrefour,alongside doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals in food distribution, building houses, and assist at the medical clinics within the tent communities, as well, visit schools and orphanages. Our mornings will start at 5:30am and end at 9:00pm. Because water is like gold in Haiti, there will be days where our group might not shower. We were warned that we run the risk of contracting any type of infectious disease such as scabies and to be very cautious in what we touch or drink. As for safety, we will have body guards to protect us. In case, an earthquake happens again or any other natural disaster, we must carry our passports at all times to ensure we immediately return on the spot to the United States.
Working with the HIV/AIDS population through the Philani organization in Khayelitsha last summer has taught me in how to mentally prepare myself in what I will inevitably see in Haiti. One of the key elements that I have learned is to emotionally insulate and detach myself when I am out in the field and to make sure that my bias will not intervene in the important work that I will do.
I am not a stranger in witnessing the worst of humanity and in the oddest blessing, I am thankful to have spent some of my childhood summers in El Salvador. If it was not for my experience as a child in El Salvador during the civil war and afterwards, my life would have not been set in this path to help the underprivileged. The great thing about roughing it out, is that it is one of the most incredible lessons in humbleness. As I always like to tell my close circle of friends, I have been entrusted with the life-calling and honor to help others, but most importantly, the privilege to learn from them and to be allowed in their lives.
I am really excited that my experience in Haiti will stimulate me academically when I begin studies as a Global Public Health student at George Washington University, and how it will also assist the research of one of my Rutgers’ professor’s books on crisis management. At a practitioner level, I am going to be observing what actions the NGO’s are doing to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera and sanitary measures. What’s being done to mobilize the development of transferring the population from tent communities before they become slums? Most especially, how the money is being put into good use or misuse after millions of dollars have been contributed in Haiti’s rehabilitation within the last 8 months.
I have also been trying to learn a few common Haitian Creole phrases. At the moment, I have learned to say:
Kijan ou rele? –What’s your name?
Kijan ou santi ou? – How do you feel?
Thank God I am bilingual in Spanish and that I studied some French and Italian in college because many of the words in Haitian Creole descend from the romance languages. I am looking forward that I will be speaking some Haitian Creole when I return back home. Unlike in South Korea, I had such a difficult time learning the language. While in South Africa, the only words that I learned in Xhosa were Mazungo, which means, white person, and Enkosi, which means thank you.
Overall,it is an adventurous opportunity to immense myself in a culture and to learn from it. In any destruction there is forgiveness and beauty, and as humans, we must be allowed to be transformed by it. Still, away from the destruction, I am looking forward to waking up and falling asleep under the Haitian sky because there is a sense of peace and rebirth. If you ever have the privilege to see the morning sunrise. You will notice that there is a moment of transition throughout the landscape. At the brevity of that moment, the morning sun infiltrates through the night sky from the right side, and from the left side, you will see the pitch darkness of the night. It is at this brevity of moment, in which Haiti stands. I believe that in the small contribution I take part in will continue to assist in the country's nation-building.
Until then, I am packing for my trip, packing for my move to Washington, D.C., and enjoying my time at home with my family and my close circle of friends who have been a great support system in all of my endeavors.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Counting the Days
In four days, I'll be traveling half around the world to start my NYU classes in Public Health, besides the long 22hr travel to South Africa, I'm very excited!!! Though I can't wait to finish my final paper, finish several projects, and get as much done possible before I leave home for two months. Emailed friends about staying with them in Dubai and Athens in the month of August.
Will write a better blog, when I'm done with my school work and can start feeling sane again.
Well it's almost 8am...need to get ready and head to the gym.
Till next time...
Will write a better blog, when I'm done with my school work and can start feeling sane again.
Well it's almost 8am...need to get ready and head to the gym.
Till next time...
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