On 17^th of December, the awareness program on Menstrual Hygiene was conducted in Sindhi colleges, Chennai. It was organised by the Sindhi College Students who are doing their Internship in FSL India Chennai Facility. The LTV volunteer Ms. Hannah with the assistance of Staff of Chennai Facility facilitated the session.  There were 170 girls participated in the  program.  The program generally focussed on general information about Menstruation, personal hygiene guidelines during Menstruation, some cultural myths related to the Menstruation, effects of Menstruation both physically and psychologically etc.  The myths such as “girls should not touch food or enter the kitchen during their menses”, “girls should not touch plants during their menstruation otherwise they should not grow” initiated lots of debates among the girls. The myths surprised the volunteer a lot as she never heard about these before.

After the session, the students had an interaction with the volunteer – asking her experience in India, cultural differences etc… they questioned on German’s beliefs,  culture , scope of social work in Germany etc. The volunteer completely enjoyed the lunch with the students… she was asked to try their lunch boxes, taking picture with her etc.

The greatest success of the program is that the program was the eye opener to Menstrual Hygiene. It paved the platform for the girls to talk about Menstruation and clarified doubts related to that. We heard from the department that female students started approaching the female professor for their doubts on matters related Menstruation.