In many communities, talking about menstruation is taboo.
Consequently, the women in these communities suffer silently under the burden
of low hygiene, the lack of healthcare and attention towards their well being.
Breaking the taboo and reaching out to many women through her initiative is
Jessamijn Miedema.
Having grown up in a family of four children with her parents and a
large acquired extended family in Sumba, one of the eastern Indonesian islands,
Jessamijn had a fairly simple childhood. It revolved around the essentials,
such as fetching water, bathing in a stream, cutting grass for the horses,
stealing peanuts from the garden and going to a school where there was no
teacher. Being in nature gave Jessamijn a strong natural relationship with all
things green, and later as an adult she understood how big a luxury that
actually is. When Jessamijn worked with coffee growers in the Araku Valley, in
South India, she enjoyed the possibilities that fair and organically produced
business seemed to have. It brought out the energy, the entrepreneurship in
people, the wish to learn and make a change. To Jessamijn that felt like
empowerment – there was no need for charity at all. When her family and she
moved to Auroville near Pondicherry, India, Jessamijn got involved with
Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG) and social enterprise creation for and
with women in self help groups. With Kathy Walkling, she co-founded Eco Femme. The
combination of working with people on a shared value base, with women and the
potential of empowerment through self organisation and business had plenty to
offer. Washable pads were products that were practical, providing for basic
needs and could have a large positive impact on the environment. That motivated
her to start Eco Femme.
After a survey of 300 women to understand women's experiences,
practices and needs in the field of menstruation, Jessamijn and her team
conducted focus group discussions and seminars with women to share these
experiences and their perceptions of different products – ranging from
different disposable and washable napkins, tampons to menstrual cups - on
comfort, health, cost and disposal. The response from the women was very
beautiful and the need to share, for menstrual education and products was also
very obvious. With the inputs in tow, the team formulated different pad designs
which were tested with 800-plus women in rural Tamil Nadu. The data that was
collected through this was translated into redesign of the pads and ways to
reach women best with these products. Though these pads are sold at cost price,
it is a considerable challenge to 'get them out there' as marketing channels
are not straight forward. Alongside this, the team also started a commercial
range for India and export as there were women from self-help groups who could
stitch and to build a financially sustainable base for the team to keep doing
all that they wished to do. Motivated by their international retailers, the
team developed the Pad-for-Pad programme, whereby customers give one pad to a
girl in India when they buy one for themselves. With these donations, the team
began working along with government schools, and hold educational sessions with
girls and gift pads to those girls interested. For this, the team also
developed different educational materials that included booklets, posters,
cycle beads and puzzles.
Washable pads are often up against the convenience of disposables
and switching needs a kick, an internal motivation, either it being a more economical
option, a better-for-your-health option, a better-for-the-earth deal, or a
combination of these and other factors, and these relations sometimes, it was
more emotional. The process often asked for some kind of an exchange or
education to fuel the change in the thoughts and practice. As it is a
sensitive, personal product that works best when it personally communicated,
Jessamijn finds that being just the two of them to work on this involves a big
challenge in having to work out ways to spread the message through others.
Nevertheless, she finds herself in a rather exciting phase of work where there
is still so much space for creativity and learning. Her initial motivation
stemmed from the need to be environmentally considerate, and she did not quite
relate to the gender undercurrent that underlay her efforts. But by and by,
when she began interacting and reading more on women’s issues, she came to
understand that there is a broad and untrammelled aggression against women
everywhere. She finds herself now understanding better how menstruation subtly
sometimes unconsciously relates to a woman’s sense of identity and being widely
perceived as negative/bad- feed women but with a sense of being less worthy.
She hopes that through her efforts, women can help each other to love
themselves as women. On a more personal level,
Jessamijn finds herself with goose bumps when she thinks of the sharing and
educational sessions with women and girls. To her, it is a very beautiful thing
to see their responses of relief, of interest and most importantly, of fun. To
Jessamijn, these things make her feel human and connected to something bigger
than her immediate circle of life.
Sensitisation and
awareness underlies Jessamijn’s work – whether it is in helping women see that
they can talk freely about menstruation or about advocacy for the environment
when women come to make responsible choices for their hygiene needs. In this,
she notes, especially in India were diversity is so
high, dialogue is important. Menstruation and women's health in general are
cross-cultural issues with undertones of economics and social organisation.
What is nice is that the use of cloth for managing menstruation is an
intercultural exchange: women have been using cloth all over the world and in
India it is still a large and alive practice. In Tamil Nadu, approximately 40%
of women only use cloth and another 20% uses both cloth and disposables. Now it
is being promoted from India within and to other parts of the world.
Having come thus far,
Jessamijn notes that the sheer joy in her work with her colleague Kathy and all
the wonderful people who offer their help, the women's joy at sharing sessions
and - what she interprets as - an enormous relief to talk, the sound of the
girls giggling and laughing, learning about their basic body biology and
getting to experience a more open, sharing and positive attitude towards
menstruation have all been tangible milestones. With their currents sales rate
translating into 400,000 less disposables per year, Jessamijn feels that this
is just the beginning. Seven women from their rural area are stitching the
pads, and they all wish that this will grow.
Being a woman, to
Jessamijn, is something that will always affect a woman
in some way. It ultimately defines a part of who they are. Being a mother of
two children, Jessamijn finds herself juggling many balls at a time where she
wants to be with them as much as she wishes to keep at her work. That said,
Jessamijn, simply put, likes being a woman, and is connecting very strongly to
it. The heavy violence against women everywhere has her angry – an anger that
does not stem from human justice values, but from being a woman.
Persevering in a way that easily and fairly combines the social and
the commercial components to her line of work, Jessamijn feels these do not
compromise, but rather complement creating a leeway for one to strengthen each
other. The feedback from customers means dealing with what women really like
and want and this makes them also more 'customer' focused with the women they
are connecting with through their social work.