A special program for marginalized women and girls has been launched by ISCI Foundation in association with its CSR partner Essar TMT. GOGS, Gwalior will help to promote menstrual hygiene and reproductive health.
This program has been started with the installation of Sanitary Napkin Vending Machine at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Railway Colony, Gwalior.
The main objective of the program: To remove taboos related to menstruation, break silence, provide awareness on menstrual hygiene, change negative social norms, end menstrual poverty and provide anytime available and affordable sanitary napkin vending machines to girls in government schools. Vending machines were set up to ensure an effective, safe and convenient mode for any time access to sanitary napkins. It aims to promote safe and hygienic practices among women and girls.
The program has been launched by ISCI Foundation in partnership with Essar TMT and in association with GOGS, Gwalior. Dr. Shashibala Bhonsle Sao was the chief guest of the program. She came with Goggs team of gynecologists. Guest speakers and experts on the topic of menstrual health were Dr. Preeti Gupta, Dr. Veera Lohia, Dr. Swati Joshi, Dr. Rashmi Agarwal, Dr. Jyoti Upadhyay, Dr. Veena Pradhan and Dr. Pratibha Garg. Essar TMT officials Mr. Neeraj Kumar and Mr. Dinesh Yadav were also present in the inaugural function. The program was presided by Mohit Modi, Director, ISCI Foundation with the help of Director Shweta Kumari and volunteers of the organization.
The program was initiated by Smt. Sweta Modi, Director, ISCI Foundation, who introduced the Chief Guest and guest of honor from GOGS to the girls and talked about the importance of the day. She told that, Why did the program start and how girls get 60 less days to study in school every year than boys. Referring to similar problems related to her life, she told the girls how important this program is to them and their NGO.
Chief Guest Dr. Shashibala Bhonsle Sao spoke about the importance of periods in a girl's life and maintaining menstrual hygiene. She told the girl students about the importance of using sanitary napkins and their proper disposal. Dr Preeti also talked about changing taboos and negative social norms related to menstruation. Gogg's guest experts talked about the diseases and common causes of gynecological problems that cause these problems and how to avoid them. The doctors also took questions from the students and solved them.
After that, on the request of Mohit ji, Dr. Shashibala Bhonsle Saw along with his team, Sweta ji, Principal Reena Yadav ji and officials of Essar TMT inaugurated the sanitary napkin vending machine. He also demonstrated the working of the machine to the girl students and provided free sanitary napkins to the principal Mrs. Reena Yadav ji for the girls. Mr. Dinesh talked about the importance of this initiative and the importance of this project for his company. School Principal Smt. Reena Dubey said this is the need of the hour and will ensure hygienic practice among the girl students. This will reduce absenteeism during menstruation as well as prevent infection and promote hygiene.
Mohit ji said that vending machines would be installed in ten government girls' schools in and around Gwalior. He said that volunteers played an important role in making this event a success. He thanked the volunteers Mehak, Shivani, Naina, Kritika, Vaibhav, Pontino and Siddharth for wonderful management of the programme.
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