Hygiene & Health for Girls & Women

CAN you imagine using a dirty rag instead of a sanitary napkin or being isolated from your friends and families when you are having your period? Although this is hard to believe, there are still women in Bangladesh who often go through this audacity in our time.

Menstrual hygiene has never really figured as a point of discussion in villages tucked deep inside rural hinterland. Widely considered a taboo, talking about menstruation in village communities is often perceived to be improper as a result of which hundreds and thousands of women have to deal with problems arising out of poor menstrual hygiene secretly. Poverty, gender inequality, and grossly inadequate sexual awareness come in the way of their access to safe menstrual hygiene practices.

In Bangladesh women and girls in many areas still face difficulties at home, schools, and workplaces during the knowledge about menstruation, and staying safe is a big concern for women in Bangladesh. A Sanitary napkin is not easily available, especially in rural areas. Many poor women do not use sanitary napkins at all during the period instead use unhygienic clothes. Poor people also can’t afford sanitary napkins. BASMAH Foundation is working to change society’s outlooks at different points like in schools, garment factories & other important places. We have distributed free sanitary napkins and strived to raise awareness through seminars and discussions among poor women and girls in the Rohingya refugee camp and in schools and other places

“We have suffered in silence for all these years. Using a cloth is cumbersome and impacts our daily life. Women think twice before going to the fields, girls stop going to school feeling conscious. I am delighted to be a part of this wonderful initiate. Now our daughters can adopt safe menstrual hygiene practices and step out of their homes without any sense of embarrassment. No child will have to stop going to school anymore,” says a beaming Amena Bibi.