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Cyclone Amphan and PinkFlag Foundation

As we all know that COVID-19 was initiated in the Wuan area of China and later it spread across the various countries of the world. Even, India was not an exception to this.

The situation of this place is very bad and due to COVID-19 along with the cyclonic storm Amphan, it even became worse. COVID-19 was further accompanied by lockdown and that brought a halt on their source of income.

Amphan was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage and destruction in the Eastern India, specifically West Bengal, on 20th May 2020 as the cyclone made landfall in West Bengal.

After the Amphan subsided, various NGOs were making an initiative to visit the area with food and relief materials for the upliftment of the people living in those areas.

Keeping in mind, the status of the women and girl child of those remote areas, PinkFlag Foundation along with the local administration surveyed the area and came up with an idea to help these feminine folks. The main concern was
the health of women of these areas were highly neglected, their basic hygiene & heath just went for a toss and was considered as not important due to the lack of awareness.

After the disaster passed away, the situation was not even normal. There was
no room for shelter. People stayed in open boats as their homes were
devastated by the storm. There was lack of proper food and drinking water.
With the assistance of the local administration, the PinkFlag Foundation took
a small initiative in distributing relief materials to the destruction stricken
areas of South 24 Parganas.

Pink Flag always stood by the women and adolescence girl child and decided
to help these people in spreading awareness regarding the health of the local
inhabitants especially the women and adolescence girl child. Pink Flag also
organized for various campaigns for the betterment of the people of these
remote areas.

On 28th June 2020, the Pink Flag Foundation distributed Hygiene Kit
having Sanitary Napkins, Towel, Soap, and Dry Foods to 3 villages where the relief
(Sanitation Packages) has been provided to around 250 women and girls. The
breakdown has been provided below;

  • 115 people in Bongheri Chondon Baandh Road,
  • 70 people in Panchayat Bazar, and
  • 65 people in Kuntoli Thana more.

 

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Menstrual Hygiene Day 2019

On the occasion of Menstrual Hygiene Day, celebrated on May 28, 2019, PinkFlag Foundation organized a walk to Kabardanga Ground in association with Tiljola Thana (Police Station) and AGON to promote and share the message on Menstrual Hygiene Day.

The program was initiated by Pavlov Mental Hospital, Kolkata.

Menstruation which is the prestigious inaugural ceremony of womanhood is still shrouded by myths & taboos. It has many negative cultural attitudes like menstruating.

Women and girls are considered ‘contaminated’, ‘dirty’, and ‘impure’. They are forced into seclusion. Their mobility is reduced & they have food restrictions too. Unfortunately, the silence and stigma surrounding menstruation make solutions for menstrual hygiene management a low priority & often ignored by professionals. The first step is to break this silence. The approach should be holistic to give women and girls the confidence and space to voice their need for improved menstrual hygiene management. “PinkFlag Movement” is a
the consolidated approach towards Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM).

The PinkFlag Movement is aimed at targeting girls in the semi-urban and rural areas in order to improve their living standards and make it cleaner, sanitary, and more understandable to them. One of the critical aspects of this endeavor is the availability of safe and hygienic materials that can be used to capture and absorb menstrual blood. This includes clean clothes and sanitary pads.

According to the latest National Family and Health Survey, 58% of the young Indian women in the age group of 15 to 24 years use hygienic methods i.e. sanitary pads. In 2010, the numbers were 12% as noted by the Plan and AC Nielsen study.

This means that over the past few years there has been a greater awareness regarding menstrual hygiene management (MHM). Corporate and small manufacturing units have progressed to making sanitary pad affordable and available to women across the country.

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PinkFlag starts its Maiden Journey

PinkFlag

PinkFlag is an all-women team belonging from different socio-economic backgrounds. We also understand the daily struggles we have to go though as a women. We view to create an ecosystem to transform the vulnerable folk into a healthy, resilient and a thriving community. The mission of PinkFlag is to empower the most vulnerable with proper knowledge, modern tools and techniques, skills, and advocacy to the stakeholders by using research, technology, media, and communities to changing the way women live their life.

Why the colour “Pink”?

It has been a standard rule that, PINK is for the Girls. The colour is considered as soft, sweet and fragile. Therefore, we have leveraged our strengths to create sustainable impactful programs that would be our symbol of resistance. Advocacy and awareness building is an important part of this movement.

How it all started

PinkFlag Movement, an initiative by the PinkFlag Foundation started with the schools of Kolkata & 24 Parganas (S). “PinkFlag Movement” is a consolidated approach towards Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM).

We started off with the J.D. School. This was a joint initiative between PinkFlag Movement and J D School. Around 90 students and teachers participated in this event. Menstruation, – a prestigious inaugural ceremony of womanhood is looked down upon. The students were excited to discuss such a topic in an open forum and welcomed the event with open arms.

In the words of Dr. Parvin Banu, one of the noted Pink Warrior, “We believe it is through continuous advocacy over time that we will be able to see the change we desire to see in our society.”

There are many negative cultural attitudes like menstruating women and girls are ‘contaminated’, ‘dirty’, and ‘impure’. They are forced into seclusion, their mobility is reduced & they have food restrictions too. The silence and stigma surrounding menstruation makes solutions for menstrual hygiene management a low priority & often ignored by professionals.

The Next Step

The first step is to break this silence. The approach should be holistic to give women and girls the confidence and space to voice their need for improved menstrual hygiene management. “PinkFlag Movement” is a consolidated approach towards that.

Therefore, we believe every woman deserves a sustainable community to build women empowerment that enables women to build capacity in order to make better life choices and act on them.