The “Dona do meu fluxo” (or Leading my flow) project will go through the backcountry of Minas Gerais to bring instructions, workshops and to distribute menstrual collectors to vulnerable women. The Project has been designed by the feminine teams of Korui, who produces sanitary pads, and of Raízes Desenvolvimento Sustentável who has more than 10 years experience with communities and has as it main goal to empower women in this rural poor areas.
That is how Korui invitation popped up to concretize this partnership. And those two companies led by women started to design this program. They thought : “To distribute a collector only would be very simple. It is a complex object, even in the way to use it. Besides it could even be rejected by the women if they don’t understand how to use it and mainly its benefits. So, why not explain all of this ?”
The solution they found was to realize workshops that :
-Explain the pragmatic use of the menstrual collector;
-Break the taboo on menstrual cycles;
-Reduce the distance those women have with their own bodies (some of them didn’t go to school and never had anatomy class);
-Show the benefits of using a collector in the long term – for the body, the wallet and the environment.
All of this, in a very pragmatic way, being said very openly, also through images, story, data, etc.
“One of the biggest advantage is that a collector lasts 10 years. And for those communities the price of sanitary pads is most of the time significant. So, if you can stay 10 years without buying sanitary pads, how wonderful! Besides is it more hygienic, it is a different contact the woman has with her own body and it is more sustainable too. You don’t generate this huge amount of waste”, explain one of the project founder and Raízes partner-director, Mariana Madureira.
Benefited women
The initiative only got out of paper now, but its first draft started long ago. One year ago, when Korui was born, they launched a campaign in which every 10 collectors sold they would give a collector to a socially vulnerable woman. It is now time to deliver and put in practice!
The selection of the women was assisted by Raízes, originate from Minas, who already operated in the backcountry of this region and knows well its social needs. The first workshop is already confirmed. It will happen during the Festival dos Povos, in the Chapada Gaúcha, located in the North of Minas, and will count on the Institute Rosa e Sertão as the local partner for mobilization. From there the workshop will go through several communities, like Uruana, Sagarana, Campo Buriti, Coqueiro Campo and a lot more.
The idea is to bring up some tales showing archetypes of women in the society nowaday in order to stimulate them to observe themselves, to look at their body and at their needs. “We are building a pretty nice material, very sensitive”.
