{"id":6638,"date":"2019-04-11T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T19:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/earlhamcollege.wpengine.com\/?p=6638"},"modified":"2021-03-24T15:53:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T19:53:14","slug":"davis-projects-for-peace-awards-10k-for-earlham-students-pak-afghan-menstrual-hygiene-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlham.edu\/news-events\/davis-projects-for-peace-awards-10k-for-earlham-students-pak-afghan-menstrual-hygiene-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Davis Projects for Peace awards grant for students’ Pak-Afghan menstrual hygiene initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A new peacebuilding initiative by Earlham College students aims to break the stigma associated with menstruation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maida Raza \u201922 and Summia Tora \u201920 have earned $10,000 from the Davis Projects for Peace program to conduct the Dosti Initiative, a project that will result in summer workshops at grade schools in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Mehrabpur, Pakistan. Dosti means friendship in Persian and Urdu, primary languages in both countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is a lot of hostility between both countries for political reasons and also due to the presence of large number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan,\u201d says Tora, an Economics and Peace & Global Studies double major. \u201cWe thought we could make a difference by not only teaching girls about menstruation but also by using it as a means of bringing people together to talk about common challenges and teaching them to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project, which will be implemented from May 22 to June 18 at a local Kabul high school in Afghanistan and Mehrabpur Girls Primary School in Pakistan, has three objectives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both students can recall moments in their own childhoods that reinforce the need for such a project. Tora, an Afghan refugee who attended middle school in Pakistan, did not receive education about menstruation at home or as part of her education. Raza, a native of Pakistan who attended high school in India, learned that people from both nations were capable of working together despite a history of hostility toward each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal is to develop a similar level of collaboration and cooperation between Afghanis and Pakistanis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know that this is not going to be an easy project,\u201d Raza says. \u201cWe are going to villages where if you start talking about menstruation the students will start laughing. Some of them have this notion that it is a disease and it is unnatural that women have periods every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very important that we start talking about topics that are not discussed as much so at least there will be some conversation on these topics,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge worth taking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data from a new report released by the United Nations International Children\u2019s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) offers a more precise snapshot of the challenge ahead of them: 50 percent of young women in both countries lack access to sanitary napkins or basic knowledge of menstruation. In Afghanistan, 29 percent of girls miss school and 80 percent are not allowed to attend social events during their menses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tora says UNICEF recently published a pamphlet that has been distributed in Afghanistan, perhaps the only public education available about menstruation in certain regions of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a lot happening in Afghanistan to educate women about menstruation,\u201d Tora says. \u201cA lot of women in Afghanistan don\u2019t have access to a basic sanitary pad because it\u2019s so expensive or they feel shy talking about. It\u2019s so taboo and stigmatized to a point where women do not even want to go out in public to purchase pads.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such widespread fear often leads to other undesirable consequences, including infection and infertility, Raza says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe village that I am targeting has seen a diminishment of the reproductive abilities of women due to the use of cloth instead of a sanitary napkin,\u201d she says. \u201cThe inability to bear a child has been shown to increase violence against women in a deeply male-dominated society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before being awarded funding from Davis Projects for Peace, both students were working on a similar project independently. With mentorship from Earlham faculty and the College\u2019s Center for Social Justice, both students united to produce a stronger project that is now expected to impact 200 girls and young women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe amount of support we have gotten from faculty, even other students, has just been so positive and encouraging,\u201d Tora says. \u201cEveryone at Earlham has been willing to help and support us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pair said Rajaram Krishnan, Professor of Economics; Jonathan Diskin, Director of the Center for Social Justice; Patty Lamson, Director of the Center for Global Education; and Sara Paule, Director of Foundation Relations and Sponsored Programs, were especially valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey let us visit them in their offices without appointments and provided us with valuable perspectives,\u201d Raza says. \u201cHad it not been for their help, this project might not have been selected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Projects such as these are encouraged by Earlham\u2019s Epic initiative<\/strong><\/a>, a four-year journey that combines the academic major with transformative learning experiences, including research, off-campus study, internships, and leadership development to prepare students exceptionally well for life beyond Earlham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n