Sasiri Hetak - phase 01

දියණි 6.0 – “දැයේ දියණියන් උදෙසා”

දෙවන අදියර - ලිය වරුණා

“වතුකරයේ කුසුම්වලට සුවඳ දෙන්න” 

Shabana Azmi once said women's health is not a niche issue - it impacts everyone in some way. That is why a collective effort to improve awareness and understanding of menstrual hygiene is key to closing the gender health gap.

Inadequate access to menstrual hygiene and education, or period poverty, is an issue equally affecting women across both rural and urban settings. Inaccessibility to low-cost feminine hygiene products, lack of infrastructure to address these specific needs, and unavailability of effective educational tools to teach menstrual hygiene, are some of the major issues women and girls deal with on a regular basis in relation to period poverty in Sri Lanka. Social and health indicators of the estate sector are very poor compared to the national figures, which has made this community a vulnerable population in Sri Lanka. The majority of tea pluckers in plantations are females. Similarly, women violence cases reported in estate areas are relatively high.

As LEOs, we selected an estate population with the intention to enhance their awareness level about violence against women and the legal protections available for them and about good sanitation, and hygiene practices along with the donation of necessary aids to maintain those practices.

We as the Leo Club of University of Colombo Leo District 306 C1, selected Kurugama a remote tea estate in Muruthalawa, Kandy area for this movement where women and young girls were struggling under poor living conditions as our project’s second phase.

This program was commenced on the 26th of February 2023 in Tamil language with the participation of girls and women between 10 -35 years of age which was led by two Attorneys at Law and a Doctor. As the session was conducted in the most familiar language of the beneficiaries it was held interactively and our resource persons were able to provide solutions to their problems. Finally, the beneficiaries were given sanitary kits including sanitary napkins, undergarments, and drawstring bags.

As Christine Mason Miller says “At any given moment you have the power to say this is not how the story is going to end, and through this phase, we were very delighted as our beneficiaries got the opportunity to know their rights and understood their value as an important part of the community.