Women in resource-poor settings in India put their health at immense risk during menstruation. From using mud & ash to dirty clothes, menstrual hygiene takes a backseat due to financial constraints and inaccessibility to clean products. Keeping this in mind, Fairfield by Marriott Pune Kharadi came forward with Humjoli Foundation to support women through a workshop to create social impact initiative that took place on February 23, 2019, that focused on menstrual hygiene by eradicating ‘period poverty’ and replacing it with ‘period positivity’.
Humjoli is a Pune based foundation spearheaded by Dr Sania Siddiqui that aims to spread awareness about menstrual health and hygiene. While doing this it primarily emphasizes breaking menstruation taboos and myths. This all is done by ‘reaching & teaching’ women and young girls to sensitize them about the issues related to periods through conducting sessions, workshops, personal counselling, and sanitary napkin distribution drives. It has over 100 volunteers who are being trained on taking ‘Period Talk’ sessions in schools, rural areas, and other similar setups. Apart from taking sessions for women and girls, the foundation has specially designed modules for young boys as well with the motive to educate boys so that they become a support system.
Talking about this initiative and supporting its cause, Mr Parvez Nisar, Hotel Manager, Fairfield by Marriott Pune Kharadi said, “It was a great honour to host an event for Humjoli Foundation which believes in creating awareness about menstrual health, hygiene and issues. We, along with Humjoli will impact our support in all possible ways to educate young girls and women of their basic rights and needs.”
