Greetings friend!

Welcome to our latest edition of Periodically.

It's monsoon season here in South India! In this edition we are covering how to dry pads when sun is scarce in a blog article from Harishini as well as details of our very first workshop with menstrual educators and activists that took place in September plus lots more - enjoy!

News...

Workshop....beyond MHM

On Sept 19 and 20th, Eco Femme hosted for the first time, a new workshop: Beyond Menstrual Hygiene Management: Exploring new frontiers for menstrual educators and activists. 13 women participants - peers from across India who connect with our work either as MHM educators, researchers or product ambassadors - joined us for an intense 2 day journey together.

Our objective for this workshop was to explore how we could widen the lens to include aspects that are typically left out of the mainstream MHM approach – namely...

including awareness of the earth/environment,
awareness that the menstrual experience transcends a merely biological process (with the primary focus on managing the bleeding time) i.e. that this is a cyclical process and an integral part of a girl and woman’s whole life
Recognition that there are deeper layers of personal and collective meaning to menstruation which are typically overlaid with patriarchal imprints which may inhibit a fully accepting and healthy relationship to what it means to be an embodied girl or woman.

The group with their uterus art shields made in a workshop with Sankalpa Art Journeys. Our thanks to Krupa for her involvement!

Through presentations, peer dialogue, deep sharing and expressive arts we explored what it might mean to widen the lens beyond MHM and how our work with menstruation can catalyse social change beginning with our own relationship to our bodies and the earth.

As a pilot program, we learned a lot and look forward to offering more workshops in future. Let us know if this sounds like something you would be interested in!

Thank you for your tampons!
We recently asked the Auroville community to give us their unused and unwanted tampons for use in our Pad for Pad sessions, where in each session, we demonstrate how a tampon works by dipping it into a glass of water.

Thank you all for bringing your tampons, we got so many!! You can continue to bring unused, unwanted tampons to our office and get a cloth pantyliner in exchange!

Above we demonstrate the ways in which we DON'T use these donations! :D

Just for laughs...

To keep up to date with our work on a regular basis, why not follow us on our social media?

In Brief...

Hellos and Goodbyes!
We are sadly saying goodbye to Melanie (left) who has volunteered with us on the marketing team for the past 2 years. With a heavy heart, we wish her well on her next adventure! We also welcome back Celia (right) who volunteered with us earlier in the year. Happy to have you back Celia!

Eco Femme on TV!
IIMB (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore) Students took up the L.I.M.E. (Lessons In Marketing Excellence) 8 challenge on 27th September to propose their solutions how Eco Femme could reach out to more women across India. Eco Femme's Jessamijn met with them and was part of a TV recording documenting the challenge. More on that later...

We would like to wholeheartedly say THANK YOU to all teams that participated. We are digesting all the innovative proposals that you have made to put those into practice that seem very fitting. We will keep you posted!

Special congratulations to the winning team members of 3LEMONaters: Ritika Yadav, Sudhir Verma and Syed Ahmer Rizvi!

Guest blog...

As it is monsoon season here in South India, we thought we'd share some useful tips on how to dry and care for your pads when the sun is scarce.

Eco Femme's Harishini shares her tips over on our BLOG.

Spotlight on...

In this issue, the spotlight is on Red School and in particular, their menstrual cycle literacy online program - we often recommend taking this program as a core skill for women we work with in the field of MHM.

And the program creators Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer generously offer this introductory course for free!

We believe it provides essential knowledge for women and girls to understand how the body is communicating to us.

Why not sign up today!

Thank you...

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a new newsletter coming in the new year.

If you'd like to contribute something to a future newsletter, send a mail to laura@ecofemme.org. It could be an article, drawing, review...anything! :)