Menstrual Health Equity for Women in Lebanon

January 16-30, 2015, we held our first distributions and awareness sessions with women in Lebanon. We distributed 120 kits to women and girls in Tyre and Saida, and we held a sewing class for 18 women in Tyre to learn how to sew the DfG shield and liner. Your support was so important to get us started on this journey!

January 20: Saida, Lebanon: In partnership with Bussma Community Center and Mercy Corps Lebanon, we conducted two awareness sessions for a total of 33 mothers and 27 daughters. The mothers' group was very enthusiastic about the DfG kit and gave us very positive feedback regarding the use of them in their community. They were especially interested in learning how to sew the shields and extra liners for themselves and others.

The teenage girls were leary at first of the concept of washable pads, but after a full explanation, they were as excited as their mothers. They told us that when disposable pads are not available, they fold washcloths to use as pads, but the DfG shield will be much more protective and give them more security from leaks and/or staining than cloths. Disposable pads are readily available in their community, but they felt that the cloth pads would be a great alterative and save their families a lot of money. One girl put it simply, "These are a really good idea." We also had a brief discussion regarding menstrual hygiene. The girls shared many misconceptions, one being that they were not supposed to bathe during their periods, and we explained more fully the biology of menstruation and why these sort of myths are untrue.

January 21: Tyre, Lebanon: Again partnering with Mercy Corps Lebanon and Bussma Community Center, we held two sessions for mothers and teenage girls. The girls in Saida had been very positive about the kits, but they were also quite shy. We found the opposite personalities in Tyre! The mothers were much like the women in Saida- very interested and supportive about the kits. The girls, however, were EXTREMELY enthusiastic about both the kits and the curriculum! And even more wonderful, they had no misconceptions about their periods or the biology of menstruation. These young women would make great Days for Girls Ambassadors of Women's Health. We spoke with them about the training, and several were interested in learning more and being a voice for girls in their communities. This is one area we would like to pursue further and plan to use our funding to return to Tyre in April to meet with the girls again. Girls teaching other girls-- how awesome is that!?

January 23: Tyre, Lebanon: The mothers from our awareness session returned, along with others, for a sewing course. We had prepared pre-cut shield and liner pieces, and each of the 18 women were able to finish completely one DfG shield and 3 DfG absorbent liners. Bussma Community Center has a dedicated sewing room with two industrial machines. We are eager to return to Tyre and do an extended training session to include micro-enterprise training. Our funding will allow us to purchase several items to get a new enterprise up-and-running.

We will be returning to Lebanon in April to conduct follow-up sessions with the women and girls, distribute more Days for Girls kits (this time in Bekaa Valley), teach an extended sewing and Ambassador of Women's Health course in Tyre, and do further research on sourcing fabrics in Lebanon for a micro-enterprise.

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