Brides do Good x CODE RED
​To mark Menstrual Hygiene Day 2021, we joined CODE RED - a campaign to raise awareness and support for Sanitation First's work to help people suffering from debilitating menstrual taboos and poor sanitation throughout India.
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Every year, 10 million children in India leave school when they start their periods. That's enough children to fill over 10,000 high schools in the UK. For most school girls, starting their periods is an inconvenience, but for 1 in 5 children it marks the end of their education.
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Ensuring safe access to quality education for girls can transform communities, countries, and the health and prosperity of our planet. It is one of the best ways to prevent child marriage, and a powerful path to gender equality.
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That's why we joined forces with Sanitation First to help them in their goal to raise £100,000 for their menstrual hygiene and facilitation programme in areas of crisis in India. Our Win A Wedding Dress raffle raised enough money to support 80 menstruating girls stay in school for a year.
CODE RED: The Equality Emergency
Sanitation First has a vision of everyone having access to a safe and hygienic toilet. Toilets are the stepping-stones towards a better future for people living in acute poverty, as basic sanitation is the linchpin that connects all other forms of development. Without improved sanitation, poverty will not be eradicated.
"For millions of children in India, when your period starts, your life stops. With no sanitation facilities at school and still deeply believed taboos around menstruation, young children find it nearly impossible to stay in school. This problem is a key contributor to gender inequality and young women leaving education.
Through our menstrual education programmes, we have seen over 11,500 girls stay in or rejoin school, a significant increase in awareness of menstrual health and a decrease in harmful beliefs, stigma, shame and fear surrounding periods - both girls and boys.
Girls have told us that they no longer dread going to school during their cycle, and wonderfully they've also mentioned trying to break social taboos at home by speaking to their mothers and grandmothers about the myths related to menstruation and asking them to not follow them anymore!"
- Padmapriya T S, Chief Executive Sanitation First