Each year on May 28th, Menstrual Hygiene Day rallies the international community in raising awareness about menstrual health. It’s a day for nonprofits, governments and individuals to advocate for a world free of period poverty and stigma – and recommit to building that future through urgent action.
This year, as COVID-19 continues to deepen menstrual inequities across the globe, we turn our attention toward the plight of menstruators hit hardest by the pandemic: refugees. We must ask ourselves: How have strategies for meeting the MHM needs of refugees shifted or “built back better” in the face of COVID-19?
More than 500 million people alive today don’t have what they need to manage their period. The risk of period poverty is heightened among refugees, who access many basic needs through humanitarian aid programs – a risk further compounded by COVID-19, which has impeded access to period products due to physical lockdown, supply chain interruption and inflation, among other challenges.
In lead up to Menstrual Hygiene Day 2021, we will take a look at the ways in which humanitarian aid and refugee programs around the globe are working to advance menstrual equity among their populations in spite of (and sometimes in stride of) the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us for an interactive Q&A session with field experts – and hear stories from refugee women and girls themselves – about how stakeholders in Bangladesh, Lebanon, Uganda, and Rwanda are “building back better” to design innovative and responsive strategies for addressing MH needs in refugee communities.
We are so excited to co-host this free virtual event, “Periods In and After the Pandemic: Refugee Spotlight,” with our partners at Menstrual Health Hub, WASH United and IMHER. Learn more and claim your spot here!
