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This NGO founder Is On ‘Mission Menstruation’

Written By: Tasneem Akbari Kutubuddin
May 27, 2021

Highlights

Humans For Humanity, a non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Dehradun, is founded by Anurag Chauhan.

In 2015, Anurag started a project called WASH (Women, Sanitation, Hygiene) that works to educate women about menstrual hygiene, providing them sanitary napkins and training them to make biodegradable sanitary napkins making them self-reliant and earn an income in the process.

In 2018, WASH started the Breaking The Bloody Taboo campaign where, as the name suggests, Anurag and his team strive to strip women of the age-old taboos. The WASH project started by him has reached over 1.5 million women in over 6 states in the last 5 years. 

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Humans For Humanity, a non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Dehradun, is founded by Anurag Chauhan. In 2015, Anurag started a project called WASH (Women, Sanitation, Hygiene) that works to educate women about menstrual hygiene, providing them sanitary napkins and training them to make biodegradable sanitary napkins making them self-reliant and earn an income in the process.

In 2018, WASH started the Breaking The Bloody Taboo campaign where, as the name suggests, Anurag and his team strive to strip women of the age-old taboos. The WASH project started by him has reached over 1.5 million women in over 6 states in the last 5 years. The workshop is led by doctors to tell the women about biological reasons behind menstruation, hormonal changes, about various stages right from teenage to menopause. Counseling is given to women particularly those who are dealing with menopause. Nutritionists tell women and girls about the importance of food & nutrition intake. Affordability and sustainability are big issues, which is why they train the women to make their own sanitary napkins at home. The workshop also covers the harmful effects of poor menstrual hygiene and teaches about the disposal of napkins.

Humans For Humanity started the Red Cloth Campaign during the pandemic, to spread awareness about menstruation & bust the taboos.

During the nationwide lockdown, the efforts of Humans for Humanity have come as a great help to the women who have been taught how to make sanitary napkins at home as they don’t have to go out and buy them but they can make hygienic sanitary pads themselves at home. Anurag was honored with the International Women Empowerment Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India and UNICEF in 2019

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At fourteen years young when teenagers are dabbling with modern paraphernalia, Anurag Chauhan found his calling in social service. By the time he was twenty, Anurag had founded a non-government organization, Humans for Humanity in his home town Dehradun to bring awareness about menstruation, health, hygiene among women across India. At twenty-one, he launched the WASH project on Women, Sanitation, Hygiene, which educates rural women about Menstrual hygiene and provides training to them for making biodegradable sanitary napkins.

Anurag Chauhan, Founder

Had his mother discouraged him from playing with her sanitary pads saying, “Don’t touch that, it’s a ladies thing”, Anurag probably wouldn’t have been honored with the International Women Empowerment Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India and UNICEF in 2019. Instead, his mother chose to educate her son about what sanitary pads and periods were all about. This made all the difference for him growing up as an empathetic young man.

However, the turning point of working in this area came after reading an article written about deaths caused due to lack of menstrual hygiene.  “I read a report stating that over 1,50,000 women in India die every year, due to menstruation-related problems. I was shocked at this statistic,” says Anurag. He started with awareness sessions and started distributing low-cost eco-friendly sanitary napkins for free. His cause received support from actress Twinkle Khanna.

But what bothered him was till when one could give something for free. “Today, we train women to make biodegradable sanitary cloth pads at an affordable cost”, says Anurag. “The women-centric workshop is headed by experienced doctors to make women aware of the biological reasons behind menstruation, stages from teenage to menopause, and other hormonal changes”.

Anurag’s organisation runs awareness programs in many villages, slums, schools, and colleges of Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.

In the community, counseling is provided to women in need who are dealing with menopause. With a separate team of nutritionists, the workshop provides information related to the importance of a healthy diet and food. Affordability and quality are the two big concerns in sanitary napkins.

“For me, quality remains a very important factor even while making cost-effective sanitary products because I would never want to give another woman a substandard product that I would hesitate to give my own mother or sisters”, says Anurag.

Therefore, the organization trains women on how to make good sanitary napkins in their homes. It also covers the adverse effects of poor menstrual hygiene and spreads awareness about the proper disposal of napkins in the waste bin.

The WASH Project

Today The WASH project started by Humans For Humanity has reached over 1.5 million women in over 6 states in India in the last 5 years, as of October 2020. However, HFH is not restricted to just the WASH project. In May 2016, they launched an initiative called ‘Stree-The Woman’, a one-day event that focuses on self-growth, self-empowerment and self-love which was attended by renowned personalities.

wash project

In the year 2018, the organization started a new campaign named ‘Breaking the Bloody Taboo.’ The main aim of this campaign is to stop the old-age taboo against women. 

In one of the campaigns in Rajasthan, the team members of Humans For Humanity organized a sessions with young girls and women of menstruating age where they even talked about the importance of holy plant Tulsi and were handed over a few leaves to women and asked them to nurture the sampling and observe the results after a month.

“I am sometimes shocked at the lack of menstrual awareness and menstrual literacy that women have. A 40 year old woman, married, was not aware that menstruation was restricted to bodies with the female reproductive system. She assumed it is something all humans go through, and thought probably her husband bled too but hid it from her as she did from him”, shares Anurag. “These are the kinds of myths we aim to dismiss”.

In 2020, Humans For Humanity launched ‘Red Cloth Campaign’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, to spread awareness about menstruation and bust the taboos. Actor Lisa Ray and singer Shibani Dandekar, Kirti Kulhari, Kubra Sait, Divya Seth supported the campaign along with thousands of social media users.

A Saviour Amidst The Pandemic

During the difficult times of nationwide lockdown in India, Humans for Humanity came forward to help women and train them to make hygienic sanitary napkins at home safely. Thanks to this project, during the scarcity of sanitary napkins during the lockdown, the seeds of WASH project he had sowed in the various states helped him procure 50,000 plus pads for distribution in Delhi.  The initiative has made hundreds of women financially independent and empowered.

Their future plans include setting up machines that make eco-friendly bio-degradable sanitary pads from bamboo plants. This will be set up in villages and provide employment to many women making them self-reliant and financially independent.

“We talk about eco-friendly and sustainable products but in villages with a scarcity of water, water is an important resource and hence cloth pads fail the cause. Hence we are working on products that will be eco-friendly in the true sense”, adds Anurag.

Anurag’s project also extended to art classes in some schools where some classes were taught to make sanitary cloth napkins. This brought up a discussion among the class of boys and girls on what the whole thing was about therefore bringing out the subject up and breaking the gender barrier.

This Padman from Delhi is an example of how the youth of India are breaking the stereotype associated with menstrual hygiene by touching the lives of those who need awareness and education with a will to bring a positive change. Being bullied for his gender while working for a cause that largely relates to women, Anurag Chauhan says it does bring him down and affect him many times. But when he thinks of the larger good that is being done it’s nothing in comparison to that joy.

changemen for menstruationmenstrual healthmenstrual hygeine daypadmanperiod ally

Tasneem Akbari Kutubuddin

Tasneem Akbari Kutubuddin has done her masters in Journalism & Communication and has worked as a senior journalist, editor and columnist for leading publications like The Logical Indian, Deccan Chronicle, Worldwide Media Corporation, The Bridge and Provoke.
With Infano, she hopes to create more awareness about women’s health issues. Suffering with Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, she has also been advocating for its awareness through media.

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Placenta: The Life Supporting Organ

Written By: Misha
March 7, 2022 | 01:12 PM |
867

Highlights

  • Did you know about a newborn’s tree?
  • Placenta is an organ formed only during pregnancy.
  • The organ is not just a biological waste but is of enormous importance.
  • Reddish purple organ covered with blood vessels connect the mother and the developing fetus inside the womb.
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The placenta performs a critical function in ensuring your baby’s health during your pregnancy. It does it all: from providing nutrients and oxygen, transporting waste-producing vital hormones and protecting against infections.

The slightest malfunction with the placenta can lead to devastating results, including prematurity, stillbirth,  miscarriage, low birth weight,  pre-eclampsia, etc. If you are interested to know more functions and the positioning of this fascinating organ then ask your healthcare provider the next time you consult them.

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“A parasite upon the mother” is how the book “Life’s Vital Link,” by Y. W. Loke, a reproductive immunologist, describes the placenta. 

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development refers to the placenta as “the least understood human organ and arguably one of the more important, not only for the health of a woman and her fetus during pregnancy but also for the lifelong health of both.” 

Realdus Columbus, first used the term “placenta” in his book De Re Anatomica, published in 1559. 

If you are pregnant or about to enter the phase of pregnancy apart from getting a lot of conventional advice, you must have heard about the changes the body undergoes during pregnancy. Well, that’s true! 

Your body goes through remarkable changes throughout pregnancy to produce the ideal environment for a baby to develop in. There is a formation of a whole new extra-embryonic organ found only during pregnancy- the placenta.

But what exactly is the placenta? Where does it come from? These questions are massively confusing to many people. Have you ever given it a thought whether it is made by the cells of the baby, by the maternal cells, or by both? Let’s figure it out! 

What is Placenta? 

The baby is not alone inside a person’s womb. Yes, you read it right! Throughout pregnancy, it is continuously surrounded by a companion. This is the placenta. 

The placenta is a complex and fascinating LIFE SUPPORTING organ that develops in the uterus during normal pregnancies and serves as a vital connection between the mother and the fetus. It grows from the cells of the embryo and not from the uterine cells of the mother. The disc of tissues is bluish to dark red in appearance, linking to the uterine lining on one side and umbilical cord on the other. 

It is an organ that contains a biome of information within itself about the baby and the conceiving individual.

What does the placenta do? 

Placenta is the interface between a pregnant individual and the fetus (an unborn offspring that develops from an embryo). It sustains all biological tasks that fetuses are unable to perform on their own during the pregnancy. 

The placenta serves the following purposes: 

Supplies oxygen and nutrients and eliminates waste– It transports oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the baby and eliminates carbon dioxide and waste products produced by the fetus, such as urea, uric acid, and bilirubin, is absorbed into the mother’s blood via the placenta serving as the baby’s lungs, kidneys, and digestive tract simultaneously throughout pregnancy. 

It not only nourishes the baby but provides a variety of products to enable the maternal body to sustain pregnancy and afterbirth events, such as the production of milk. 

  • It produces pregnancy hormones, each of which plays an important role in supporting your pregnancy such as – Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the hormone detected by pregnancy test kits. 
  • Provides immunity as the antibodies can pass through the placenta to the fetus.
  • Regulates the baby’s body temperature.
  • Another hormone produced by the placenta is progesterone, which supports the implantation of the fetus. During pregnancy, estrogen encourages the growth of breasts and milk ducts.
  • And Human placental lactogen (hPL) stimulates the growth and development of the fetus. To read hormone action during pregnancy in detail, click here.

You may also check out this video about the placenta: The incredible organ during pregnancy.

When does the placenta form? 

The chorion (an embryonic organ that develops before the placenta) forms as soon as the fertilized egg implants in the uterus. As per normal biological conditions, nearly it requires 18–20 weeks of pregnancy for the placenta to be fully developed in most of the pregnancies. And nearing 14 weeks of pregnancy, the mother’s blood supply is completely attached to the growing placenta. 

What happens to the Placenta after childbirth? 

IT IS OFTEN CALLED THE AFTERBIRTH. If you have a vaginal delivery, the placenta is expelled out vaginally after the baby comes out. In the case of a cesarean section, it is removed at the same time when the baby is taken out. To avoid infection, all leftover fragments are removed from the uterus by the health care provider. 

The spiritual belief 

Placenta is considered auspicious and is buried deep within the soil in some cultures to symbolize the baby’s link to the earth. It is believed to bring good fortune to a newborn baby. To celebrate the birth, some parents place it in the yard. Ceremonial handling of the placenta by many cultures around the world is a symbol of life, spirit, and good fortune for the newborn.

To read more on women’s health, click here.

This text is provided for information purposes only and is not aimed as an alternative for professional medical advice. Always take the advice of a health specialist if you have questions regarding your health or a medical condition.

afterbirthcaesarean sectionfetal developmentmotherhoodplacentaPlacental hormonespregnancy

Misha

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