My name is Ana and I do the Health and Hygiene project with FSL-India in Chennai. With two other FSL-India volunteers, Hannah and Sara, we prepared a presentation on menstruation. It is a theme of great importance since hygiene during the menstruation is so important.

In our presentation, we define what menstruation is. We mention the few Indian myths about menstruation: a girl should not touch food during the time of her menstruation; she should not enter the kitchen and also not touch plants. We explain the reason behind those myths: Hygiene. After, we give advice on how to keep a good hygiene during menstruation and some effects of the menstruation like hot flashes, mood swings (…) and how to beat menstrual pain. We show how to use a menstrual pad and after let the girls or women ask us questions if they have any.

On March 27^th, we three went to Thirupandiyur to do our presentations. In the morning, we did our presentation to the community women. It went fine. Some of them asked us questions and looked very interested in what we were saying. In the afternoon, we presented our slideshow to school girls (10-14-years-old). The teachers translated for us and the girls were very attentive and calm. It was very nice.

The difficulty we had had to adapt to the audience. Our presentation contained elements that were not relevant for the young girls and some that were not relevant for the women. It was surprising to see how little some women knew about menstruation. Therefore, we saw that our presentation was necessary since there is a lack of knowledge about menstruation. Teenage girls also needed to be reassured about some points. We think it would be important to do this presentation in other 14^th HMC villages, which we will organize and hope it will be as good as the two first ones.