Humans For Humanity

Humans for Humanity conducted a menstrual hygiene awareness workshop in Dhaulagiri village, Tehri, under our WASH project, an effort that goes beyond a single session and looks at long-term change in how health, hygiene and dignity are understood.

The focus was not just on information, but on building comfort around a subject that is often avoided. Conversations around menstrual health, hygiene, safe usage and waste disposal were opened up in a way that felt practical and relevant to everyday life. When these conversations happen openly, they begin to shift habits, not just opinions.

A key part of the work is engaging mothers and community health workers. When they are part of the discussion, awareness does not remain limited to a room, it moves into homes, families and daily practices. That is where real impact lies.

What stood out was the willingness to show up. Children who walk kilometres to school, and women who walked just as far to attend, choosing to be part of the conversation. It is a reminder that access is not always the barrier, sometimes it is the lack of opportunity, and that is what this work is trying to address.

This was followed by a distribution of sanitary kits, heat patches and undergarments, ensuring that awareness is supported with access, because one without the other rarely leads to change.

The session was led by Smriti Batta, Meera Naveli and Lubna Khanam, with strong support from the teachers who made it possible.

This is not just about one workshop. It is about building understanding, changing behaviour, and creating a shift that sustains itself.

Humans for Humanity, through its WASH project, created a space for dialogue in Dhaulagiri village, Tehri, and Meera Naveli brought to it the courage to question.

Speaking about the taboos surrounding menstruation, she addressed what is often left unsaid. Not forcefully, but honestly, in a way that encouraged reflection rather than resistance.

In communities where silence has been the norm, these conversations are not easy, but they are necessary.

Because change does not begin with information alone. It begins with unlearning.