Project Body - Menstrual health and hygiene, medical and nutritional education

Body

Health Camps

Our health camps allow disadvantaged children to get a basic health screening, hearing and vision tests, and dental health checkups. For most of these children, our camps provide their first interaction with medical professionals. This video gives an overview of a health camp held at the Sphoorti Children’s Home near Cherlapally, Hyderabad.

Clean Safe Bathrooms

More than 60 percent of the school-age children in and around Hyderabad have no access to bathroom facilities and have no option but to relieve themselves in public. This problem is crippling for young girls, particularly those on the threshold of puberty. Our Project Dignity provides safe clean bathrooms for school-age girls. At the Dammaiguda Government School near Hyderabad, we built new washroom and toilet facilities that provide cleanliness, privacy, and safety for young girls.

Menstrual Health and Hygiene

Health and sanitation determine the course of life for young girls in India. For girls entering puberty, conditions related to menstruation lead to school drop-out, and lives shortened or impaired by illness caused by inadequate menstrual hygiene.

More than 70% of girls have no knowledge of menstruation before their first period.
63 million adolescent girls live in homes without toilet facilities.
23 million girls drop out of school each year due to lack of facilities to help them manage their period.
88% of menstruating women have no access to affordable sanitary products and use unsanitary alternatives like old fabric, rags, sand, ash, wood shavings, newspapers, or dried leaves.

(for a comprehensive understanding of menstrual health and hygiene in India see the Dasra report Spot On!)

We help girls understand the changes their bodies go through by conducting hygiene and sanitation fairs that provide factual, plain-language information about menstruation. This foundation of simple science-based knowledge will help girls and women understand and manage their periods at home, school, or work.