WHAT?
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM ?
The BASIC PROBLEM is – that women do NOT have access to sanitary protection. Most rural and low-income Nepalese women ‘free-flow’ or use extra old saris or old cloths with straw. Can you imagine how that must be?
The SADDEST PROBLEM is - that women in Nepal are ostracised, punished, shamed and blamed purely for menstruating – a natural biological necessity.
The ONGOING PROBLEM is HEALTH – or rather the lack of it!
Physical Health - Once a girl has started her periods, and especially after she has married and given birth, a rural woman will suffer aspects of ill-health all her life -
chronic sexual infections - pelvic inflammation - kidney infections - numerous urinary tract infections – diarrhoea - fertility problems – prolapsed uterus –
these are preventable and changeable – YOU can help - let’s change our world.
Freedom Kit Bags - tackles health problems preventing and reducing the occurrence of infections, immediately improves well-being and self-esteem.
​
Mental Health – women in chaupadi face shame leading to low self-esteem - they experience isolation with constant fear, especially at night, and endless worries about ‘breaking the rules’, all affecting the balance of a healthy mind.
Freedom Kit Bags - give dignity, improve self-confidence and self -esteem – immediately.
The BIGGEST PROBLEM is - Chhaupadi -and the thinking behind it.Practised for centuries but now illegal in Nepal since 2005 it is poorly policed and still widely practiced to varying degrees.
Chhaupadi - chhau meaning menstruation – padi meaning woman banishes a woman/ girl from her home driving her to live elsewhereduring her menstruation period, sometimes with others, sometimes alone. This could be an old goat/cow house: a hide in the jungle: a small cave:a wooden platform with little protection from the elements: a mud-hut: even a dug-out in the ground.If not put out of the house entirely, a married woman is required sleep away from her husband, usually on the floor, this in towns as well as villages.
Chaupadi – is more than this...
-
It makes women vulnerable - to the elements, they die from cold and exposure - to attack from wild animals, many die from snake bites, - to men, many are raped and molested
-
It requires women who have just given birth and still bleeding,and therefore is considered ‘unclean’. She and her vulnerable new-born baby are left to cope on their own for up to 5 days.
-
prohibits women from ‘touching’ foods, water, cattle or crops, or touching her husband or male members of the family; from entering the kitchen, all in case she ‘contaminates’ them and bring punishments from the Gods.
-
It requires her to eat only certain foods usually dry, usually rice and salt.
Freedom Kit Bags -
-
offer an immediate solution to coping with the physical manifestations of menstruation.
-
offer cleanliness, comfort and dignity – therefore not ‘unclean’.
-
mean there is no need to have to leave one’s house during menstruation.
Freedom Kit Bags can shake the foundations of chhaupadi – and change the world.
