The Days for Girls Podcast (Days for Girls International )

Clint Borgen is the Founder and President of The Borgen Project, an organization working to bring U.S. political attention to global poverty. Borgen works with Congressional leaders to build support for legislation that improves conditions for people in developing nations. He is widely regarded as one of the leading poverty-reduction campaigners in the United States.

In this episode, Clint talks about The Borgen Project’s mission to fight extreme poverty. The Borgen Project believes that leaders of the most powerful nation on earth should be doing more to address global poverty. 

Highlights:

• Clint’s personal journey to becoming the Founder of The Borgen Project
• How The Borgen Project engages political leaders in the United States to address poverty around the world
• What you can do to participate in the political process and advocate for issues you care about 

Connect:

Website: www.borgenproject.org

Twitter: @borgenproject

Facebook: www.facebook.com/borgenproject

Bio:

Clint Borgen is the Founder and President of The Borgen Project, an organization working to bring U.S. political attention to global poverty. Borgen works with Congressional leaders to build support for legislation that improves conditions for people in developing nations. He is widely regarded as one of the leading poverty-reduction campaigners in the United States.

Background: In 1999, while working as a young volunteer in refugee camps during the Kosovo War and genocide, Clint Borgen recognized the need for an organization that could bring U.S. political attention to issues of severe poverty.

In 2003, after graduating from Washington State University and interning at the United Nations, Borgen began developing his project. In need of startup funding, Borgen took a job living on a fishing vessel docked in Dutch Harbor, Alaska (the same location as The Deadliest Catch). From humble beginnings in one of Earth’s most remote locations, The Borgen Project was born.

Now headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, The Borgen Project has become an influential campaign aimed at reducing global poverty through public mobilization and political advocacy, and serves as a testament that one man and a laptop can change the world.

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Karen Austrian is a director at the Population Council, where she leads the Council's Girl Innovation, Research and Learning Center: a global research hub that generates, synthesizes and translates evidence on adolescents to support investments that transform their lives, especially for girls. She specializes in developing, implementing and evaluating research-driven programs that build protective assets for girls.

In this episode, Karen dives into her journey in policy-driven research and programming for girls; unpacks the nuanced issue of gendered school absenteeism; shares key findings on the relationship between MHH/SRH education and body confidence; and explains why she always “lets the evidence (of the lived experiences of youth) shape the response.”

Highlights:

• How Population Council drives impact through policy-relevant research to improve the lives of vulnerable populations.
• All about the Nia Project: a study of more than 3,000 adolescent girls in 140 primary schools in Kilifi, Kenya, that rigorously evaluated the impact of menstrual health education and period products on school attendance rates. 
• Study findings on the positive impacts of MHH interventions – including equitability of gender norms; improved menstrual, sexual and reproductive health knowledge; reduced menstrual stigma and shame; and improved confidence/self-efficacy.
• The complex issue of gendered school attendance rates – and why we shouldn’t view period product distribution as a silver bullet for keeping girls in school.
• Other factors driving school drop-outs, including lack of disposable income for school fees, domestic/familial duties taking priority.
• How MHH education can serve as an access point into broader discussions about sexual and reproductive health with teen girls.
• How Girl Roster improves data collection and program outcomes through demographic tracking assistance.
• The importance of taking an integrated approach to research 

Connect:

Website: https://www.popcouncil.org/research/expert/karen-austrian

Email: kaustrian@popcouncil.org

Bio:

Karen Austrian is the director of the Population Council, where she leads the Council's Girl Innovation, Research and Learning Center: a global research hub that generates, synthesizes and translates evidence on adolescents to support investments that transform their lives, especially for girls. Prior to stepping into this role, Austrian led a portfolio of projects designed to empower girls in East and Southern Africa. She develops, implements and evaluates programs that build girls protective assets, such as financial literacy, social safety nets and access to education.

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Severina Lemachokoti is an outspoken advocate for gender equity and reducing FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). She is a sought-after women’s leader who has spoken at the UN, Africa Regional Conference on Women, and speaks and facilitates convenings to bolster the rights of indigenous peoples, human rights activism, and trauma and conflict resolution.

In this episode, Severina talks about her experience with FGM and how she became an outspoken advocate for gender equality around the world. 

Highlights:

• The inspiration behind Severina's commitment to gender equity
• How to respect cultural traditions while also advocating for a change in behavior when it comes to FGM
• Severina's personal experience with FGM and her work advocating for change

Connect: 

Contact Severina via email at severinalem@gmail.com

Watch Tradition by Severina on YouTube

Bio:

Severina Lemachokoti is an outspoken advocate for gender equity and reducing FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). She is a sought-after women’s leader who has spoken at the UN, Africa Regional Conference on Women and girls. Severina speaks and facilitates convenings to bolster the rights of indigenous peoples, human rights activism, trauma and conflict resolution.

Severina’s educational background includes Counseling Psychology and Sociology, with a minor in Women’s Studies and a Masters Degree Liberal Arts. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Education in Leadership and Administration at Wichita State University.

Severina serves on the Board of Samburu Women Trust as chair person, Days for Girls International Board and is a member of the Indigenous Women Council of Kenya. She has been volunteering with Days for Girls since 2016 and is a champion for menstrual equity around the globe.

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Souphalak (Peckie) Inthaphatha is a recent PhD graduate from Nagoya University in Healthcare Administration. Eiko Yamamoto is a professor from the Department of Healthcare Administration at Nagoya University. She also responsible for the Young Leaders' Program for the Ministry of Health in Asia.

In this episode Peckie and Eiko talk about their recent studies on menstrual health and factors associated with school absence among student girls in Luang Prabang Province, Lao PDR, and factors associated with postpartum depression among women in Vientiane Capital in Lao PDR.

Connect with Peckie and Eiko to learn more about their work at the following links:

Visit Eiko's Profile on the Nagoya University Website

Connect withe Peckie on Facebook 

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Nur Kara is an attorney at DLA Piper LLP (US). She was selected to spend her first year at the firm working exclusively on global pro bono matters. Now, outside of her litigation practice, she continues to work on project development for New Perimeter, the firm’s non-profit affiliate, focusing on menstrual rights and policies, intimate partner and gender-based violence, and women’s education and advancement.

In this episode, Nur talks about her leadership of a project New Perimeter is working on where a team of attorneys is drafting a multi-country study on the laws and policies related to menstrual equity in the education sector, with guidance from Days for Girls’ experts and affiliates.

Connect:

Nur Kara | People | DLA Piper Global Law Firm

LinkedIn

nurkara.contently.com

Bio:

Nur Kara is an attorney at DLA Piper LLP (US). She was selected to spend her first year at the firm working exclusively on global pro bono matters. Now, outside of her litigation practice, she continues to work on project development for New Perimeter, the firm’s non-profit affiliate, focusing on menstrual rights and policies, intimate partner and gender-based violence, and women’s education and advancement. She also represents immigrant clients seeking asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, and temporary protected status, among other humanitarian pathways, as well as survivors of domestic violence seeking protective orders. Prior to law school, Nur served as a Fulbright Researcher to New Delhi, India, where she implemented a survey-based study and original curriculum for almost 700 students to address the sociocultural barriers to adequate menstrual health. She has also counseled adolescents on child labor laws and sexual assault in Uganda and worked in global health administration. Nur holds a B.A. in Political Science and Human Rights from the University of Chicago; an MSc. in Health Policy, Planning & Financing jointly from the London School of Economics & Political Science and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

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Carinne Chambers-Saini, CEO and Founder of Diva, maker of the DivaCup, always knew that she wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps, as both an entrepreneur and an advocate for women’s health.

In this episode, Carinne talks about how she joined forces with her mother to develop Diva, a modern redesign of a menstrual cup concept from the 1930s. The mother-daughter duo started Diva on a shoe-string budget from their kitchen table and relentlessly challenged a male-dominated industry.

Twenty years later, Diva has taken menstrual cups mainstream and disrupted the sanitary product industry by providing a more sustainable and planet-friendly solution. Diva is now sold in over 40 countries and has sold over 6.5 million DivaCups internationally to date.

Connect:

https://divacup.com/

DivaCup on Instagram

DivaCup on Twitter

Carinne on Instagram

Bio:

As Diva’s CEO, Carinne oversees everything from product design, and marketing, to the brand's philanthropic efforts. In her time as CEO, she has worked with her team to introduce  the first-ever menstrual cup recycling program in North America, DivaRecycles. A first-of-its-kind for the menstrual product space, Diva partnered with Terracycle to help reduce waste and carbon footprint impact. Most recently, Diva was one of the first brands in North America to introduce a menstrual health leave policy for its employees, allowing them to have up to 12 days of paid leave a year, apart from their sick leave. Carinne is a trailblazer in the space and leading the charge both as a leader at Diva and as an advocate in the menstrual health space. 
Carinne and her company have received notable recognition, winning EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Sustainable Products and EY’s Special Citation Award for Industry Disruptor. In 2017, Carinne was also the recipient of Canada’s Top 40 under 50. Most recently, Carinne received a 2019 RBC Women of Influence TELUS Trailblazer Award, in recognition of her industry-disrupting work with Diva International.

Today, Carinne is a sought-after speaker and panelist at industry events and business conferences. “I want to motivate women to assert themselves – to find their unique voices and dare to follow their passion, facing down fear to fulfilling their true potentials. My hope is they will be inspired by our story – take chances and never give up, even when they’re up against all odds.” 

Carinne not only pioneered an unprecedented shift in period dialogue with the launch of Diva, but she also spontaneously launched a documentary project in 2017 known as Pandora’s Box. As said by many, Carinne lifted the lid on Pandora’s Box with the goal to create a conversation around period quality while shedding light on the global stigma attached to menstruation. and she lights on global period equity. 

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Rochelle Courtenay is the Founder and Managing Director of Share the Dignity, an Australia-based charity, organizing the The Global Period Poverty Forum (GPPF), Oct. 10-12, 2022.

The GPPF will bring together 42 world-class speakers, outstanding researchers and those making a global impact for three days of extraordinary development and learning around how WE can unite to end period poverty. Days for Girls is a participating partner.

In this episode, Rochelle talks about the inspiration for her work at Share the Dignity and what to expect at the GPPF.

Connect:

The Global Period Poverty Forum (GPPF), Oct. 10-12, 2022

Share the Dignity

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn

Bio:

Share the Dignity was founded in 2015 with the mission to ensure that everyone is afforded the dignity in life that so many of us take for granted. Share the Dignity brings dignity to women and girls experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, and period poverty through the distribution of period products. Share the Dignity is powered by volunteers, and through Rochelle’s contagious spirit over 6,000 volunteers have jumped on board to help ‘share the dignity.' 

Share the Dignity has donated over 3.5 million period products through multiple initiatives across Australia. Rochelle has won recognition and accolades for her work including Finalist Australian of the Year, Cosmopolitan Humanitarian of the Year and Pride of Australia.

As well as holding biannual collections for period products nationwide, Rochelle is passionate about advocating for change and creating long-term solutions. Share the Dignity successfully advocated to axe the tax on period products, with the GST on period products being removed in early 2019. Additionally, Share the Dignity has been advocating for free period products in schools for years and since then many states have begun implementing programs. 

Most recently, after finding out that patients in Australian hospitals were being denied period products and instead being given diapers, gauze, bed pads and towels Share the Dignity has turned its focus to advocating for pads to be provided to patients for free in Australian public hospitals.

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Today's episode is with Anders Ankarlid, Founder of A Good Company, whose mission is to create elegant, thoughtful and sustainable everyday products.

Anders is a serial e-commerce entrepreneur, and a father of three. He has worked in e-commerce for more than a decade, and considers himself a mindless consumption-activist.

In this episode, Anders talks about why he chose Days for Girls International as the nonprofit partner for A Good Company's Bamboo Toilet Paper Products. With each bamboo toilet paper subscription, A Good Company provides a DfG Kit to women and girls around the world.

Learn more at agood.com

https://www.instagram.com/agoodcom/

https://www.facebook.com/agoodcom

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andersankarlid/

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Jedidah Lemaron is an accomplished psychologist and specialist in AYSRH and Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management. As a training consultant, FGM advocate, and the Founder and Executive Director of The Malkia Initiative, she works tirelessly to ensure that every girl and woman in pastoral communities can participate in development meaningfully and effectively through quality education, advocacy, and gender justice mainstreaming.

With over nine years of experience in Gender, Community Sexual Reproductive Health, and Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), Jedidah is committed to empowering women and girls through education, addressing gender equality and sexual reproductive health and rights, policy, and advocacy. She earned her degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Nairobi and completed a Leadership in Civic Engagement program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jedidah's efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2022, she was honored with the Head of State Award for her contribution to ending Female Genital Mutilation in Kajiado County. She was also a finalist for the Diversity and Inclusion Award and recognition for UNLEASH SDG 5talent in 2022 and a recipient of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders in 2016.

Links:

https://malkiainitiative.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jedidah-lemaron/

https://allafrica.com/stories/201712130690.html

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In this episode, Cynthia Covey Haller talks about her latest book, Live Life in Crescendo and why Days for Girls is mentioned as an example of what it means to live life in crescendo. 

Cowritten with his daughter, Cynthia Covey Haller, and published posthumously, Live Life in Crescendo is a life-changing and life-affirming book that befits the generosity and wisdom of the late Stephen R. Covey.

Cynthia Covey Haller is an author, teacher, speaker, and active participant in her community. She is the author of She has contributed to the writing of several books and articles, notably, The 3rd Alternative by Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, and The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make, both by Sean Covey. 

Cynthia has held multiple leadership positions in women's organizations, served as a PTSA president, as an organizer for refugee aid and a food pantry volunteer, and she is currently working with her husband, Kameron, as a service volunteer for Bridle Up Hope, a non-profit. 

She graduated from Brigham Young University and lives with her family in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the mother of 6 children and has 21 grandchildren, giving her plenty of opportunity to "live in crescendo!" 

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Laura Baerwolf has been with Mona Foundation since 2019 and is currently its Chief Operating Officer. She is passionate about Mona’s mission to alleviate poverty through education and gender equality and its unique values-driven approach to philanthropy based on the oneness of humanity. She sees her work at Mona as the culmination of a life-long commitment to service.

Laura is an experienced administrator with a Master's degree in Public Health. She worked in healthcare administration at FHP International for many years and later moved to the nonprofit sector to manage the administrative office of the Regional Bahá'í Council of the Northwestern States.

Prior to joining Mona, Laura worked as a regional coordinator for the Northwest Regional Training Institute, a nonprofit educational agency aimed at empowering children, youth, and adults to develop their individual capabilities and contribute to the betterment of their communities. She currently serves on the Institute’s Board of Directors as its secretary.

Mona Foundation Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monafoundation.org/

Mona Foundation Twitter: https://twitter.com/monafoundation

Mona Foundation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themonafoundation/

Mona Foundation YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/monafoundation

Mona Foundation LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1969671/

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Habiba C Mohamed is a social change activator, and trained psychotherapist advocating for women’s bio-psychosocial health and rights. Ms Mohamed supports marginalized women and girls to tap into their inner strengths and amplify their potential and impact in society.

Habiba Mohamed works with Fistula Foundation as the Regional Director, Programs (Africa, Asia). Habiba Joined the Foundation in 2014 as the outreach manager. In this role, she designed and spearheaded the community strategy for the Fistula Foundation Treatment Network in Kenya. Later, she was promoted to country director to oversee the entire network of hospital and community partners. Her work has contributed to provision of fistula surgeries, and restoring of dignity to more than 11,000 women in the last 8 years. In her role as regional director of programs, Habiba is responsible for the expansion of the treatment network model throughout the African region.

Before joining the Fistula Foundation, Ms. Mohamed worked on the fistula program for nearly a decade. She is the Founder and Lead Director of Women and Development Against Distress in Africa (WADADIA), a nonprofit organization that advocates for sexual reproductive health and rights for the marginalized women. Since establishing the organization in the year 2006, she has been actively involved in the formulation of policies, procedures and strategies that has led to its growth and expansion. Besides her work with WADADIA, Habiba also supported a community program funded by the United Nations Population Fund for six years, and served as a consultant program specialist for One By One, a US-based nonprofit focused on fistula treatment. She has worked and volunteered with several other organizations, giving her an in-depth understanding of community dynamics and engagement. 

Ms Mohamed was the lead consultant in the development of the female genital fistula training curriculum for community health volunteers in Kenya, and a contributor for the new global fistula guidance. She is the author of the psychosocial effects of obstetric fistula on young mothers in Western Kenya, obstetric fistula post-repair follow up; an outreach workers perspective, and the obstetric fistula community-based assessment tool (OF-COMBAT) - a verbal screening tool, that has helped reduce the number of women being referred to fistula treatment centers with other forms of incontinences.

Ms Mohamed began her career as a veterinarian, assisting livestock farmers in Western Kenya. Through this close contact with the community, she began to see the social challenges faced by rural, communities and became passionate about working with marginalized women. She has a higher diploma in Social Work and Community Development, a first and a master’s degree in counseling psychology and is an ongoing PhD candidate of counselling psychology at Kenyatta University.

Links:

https://fistulafoundation.org/

https://www.facebook.com/fistulafoundation/ 

https://www.facebook.com/WADADIA/

https://www.wadadia-nonprofits.org/

https://www.facebook.com/WADADIA/

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Jeanne Charbit is a Project Manager at Hystra Consulting which she joined in 2019. In her first years, Jeanne mainly worked in the nutrition sector, notably on a multi-year partnership between an FMCG and a donor in Nigeria, and on MERIEM project, for which she spent a year in Burkina Faso, working with local companies to develop fortified food products for children and women.

More recently she has been working on menstrual health issues and is the author of Hystra’s report "Scaling up access to menstrual health in the Global South: Improving product quality and access to reusable options"

Links:

https://www.hystra.com/our-insights/a2mh

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanne-charbit/

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In the mission for menstrual equity, Days for Girls, The Policy Project, Share the Dignity, Population Services International Europe, The Pad Project, The International Sanitary Supply Association, and The Toilet Board Coalition partnered to create the Period Positive Workplace initiative to help organizations around the world build menstrual equity.

Visit https://www.periodpositiveworkplace.org/ to learn more. 

Period Positive Workplaces support gender equality by providing period products at work.

Your organization can become a certified by doing these three things:

1. Provide period products in bathrooms
2. Meet WASH facility standards
3. Inform employees via a formal notice (e.g., sending an email, announcing it at a staff meeting, updating your employee benefits or HR handbook, etc.) that period products are and will continue to be provided.

Period positive workplaces can increase employee productivity and reduce absenteeism for people who menstruate. Organizations become stronger and more inclusive by providing for menstrual needs.

Join over 100 organizations around the world to become a Period Positive Workplace and receive complimentary certification by applying here.

In this episode of The Days for Girls Podcast, Diana Nelson, DfG Global Advocacy Director and Jess Strait, DfG Data Systems Manager & Advocacy Specialist join us to talk about the Period Positive Workplace.

We discuss:

• In depth details on the Period Positive Workplace initiative and how it came about. 
• How does having period products at work impact employees and why does it matter for businesses?
• What the data says about this issue.
• The growth of the initiative and organizations already certified. 
• How you can encourage your employer to become Period Positive Workplace certified. 
• What it takes to be come certified. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode 025: Fighting Period Poverty at Penn State with Jess Straight & Emma Cihanowyz

Bios:

Diana Nelson
Diana Nelson is the Global Advocacy Director at Days for Girls International where she focuses on developing policy environments that support women, girls, and people who menstruate with the knowledge and products they need to manage their periods, including the establishment of washables standards and comprehensive menstrual health education.  A leader in menstrual health coalition building, she serves on the leadership team for the African Coalition for Menstrual Health (ACMHM), on the Advocacy and Policy Task Committee for the Global Menstrual Collective, and represents DfG on several other coalitions. She helped launch the South Africa Menstrual Health and Hygiene Coalition and advocated to the Cambodian government to pilot menstrual health education in their national curriculum.

Jess Strait
In her dual role, Jess oversees IT operations and Days for Girls advocacy programming in high-income countries. Jess became involved with Days for Girls in 2018 as a founder and president of the Penn State club. Her work there included a campus-wide menstrual cup distribution, co-instructing a course on menstrual equity, conducting a menstrual health needs assessment, and running sewing operations for

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Go behind the scenes with Days for Girls International, an award-winning NGO, as we interview thought leaders in international development who work to empower women and girls around the world. You’ll hear from experts in the fields of menstrual health, social entrepreneurship, and international development, as well as get inside stories from the women and girls impacted by our vital work to create menstrual equity for every girl, everywhere, period. Visit daysforgirls.org to learn more about Days for Girls International.

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Neville Okwaro (he/him/his) is a Menstrual Hygiene Management trainer for East and Southern Africa, and a Knowledge Management consultant in Kenya. Neville is passionate about addressing gender inequality through policy reforms and by changing social norms around menstruation. In this episode we talk about how he got into this work and what he’s experienced over the course of his long career as an advocate for menstrual health and hygiene. 

Neville talks about the impact of menstrual health on women, girls and men, and how he is working to change the narrative so that women can celebrate their bodies, men can understand how to support them and everyone is able to talk freely about menstrual health. 

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Dr. Julie Hennegan (she/her/hers) is a mixed-methods researcher specializing in global adolescence and women’s health. She is passionate about exploring the social and environmental determinants of health, as well as the design and evaluation elements of complex social interventions. Julie’s work focuses on menstrual health, sexual and reproductive health, and the gendered dimensions of water, sanitation and hygiene services.

In this episode, we dive into Julie’s research on the effectiveness of different menstrual health solutions - and unpack why more research is critical to meeting the needs of menstruators around the world. 

Follow Dr. Hennegan on Twitter @julie_hennegan | Connect with her on LinkedIn 

Resources Mentioned in the Show: 

www.menstrualpracticemeasures.org 

Highlights from this episode:

• Dr. Hennegan’s experiences and stories from the field
• How she got started in this work and why it matters to her
• Why more research is needed to uplift menstruators on a global scale

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Today’s guest is Tania Safi (they/them), an award-winner videographer and storyteller. Throughout their decade-long media career, they have produced everything from native digital entertainment for Buzzfeed to feature documentaries on human trafficking in India. They even created a few short documentaries for Days for Girls, which we will talk about in this episode. Tania is currently the Head of Video at Happy Media and lives in Australia. 

Follow them on Instagram @taniasafi | Connect with them on LinkedIn | Subscribe to Tania’s  YouTube Channel

Resources Mentioned in the Show:

https://www.teasafi.com/ 

Sway Sway Episode #3 about Days for Girls in Lebanon

SBS Video: Meet the Brisbane inmates changing lives of young women and girls across the world

Highlights:

• Video storytelling in the LGBTQA+ community 
• Using inclusive language to talk about menstrual health 
• How storytelling through video is a powerful way to effect change

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Nancy Muller is PATH’s former Senior Program Officer in women’s health and menstruation, with more than 30 years of experience in the global health field. She currently works as an independent consultant at the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, where her team strives to break down the barriers of menstrual awareness by improving health systems globally. 

Today, Nancy joins us to share her personal experiences in the field and discuss various menstruation products and sanitation technologies in India and Africa. We will also discuss gender roles in the menstrual movement, including the importance of women leaders and supportive male allies.

Connect on LinkedIn | Get in touch via email: muller.nancy@gmail.com 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition

PATH

Menstrual Health Supplies Workstream

Highlights:

• The importance of normalizing and de-stigmatizing menstruation
• The impact of educational access barriers in certain countries
• Nancy’s work with improving health technologies
• Women as leaders of dialogue: expanding the conversation 

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A well known figure in the menstrual health space, Danielle Keiser (she/her/hers) brings global communities together through social impact and advocacy. She is the Executive Director and Founder of Menstrual Health Hub and a partner at Madamí, a consulting agency focused on gender and female health innovation. 

In this episode, Danielle talks to us about paving the way for positive change in the menstrual health space. Join us as we learn from her experiences as a menstrual movement leader, her current projects in the field, and why we urgently need to address shortcomings in menstruation policy.

Follow The Menstrual Health Hub on Instagram | Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn

Resources Mentioned in the Show:

Menstrual Health Hub - sign up for the Menstrual Memo for monthly news of health victories, including jobs, research, and new opportunities!

Madami 

Highlights:

• Starting the MH Hub: Combining global communities
• Menstrual Memo and celebrating achievements
• Policy: Where the field needs to up its game

Bio:

Danielle I. Keiser is the Executive Director and Founder of Menstrual Health Hub and Partner at Madamí, a consulting agency focused on gender and female health innovation. Danielle is a bridge-builder who specializes in driving collective impact in the menstrual health world: working to bring together, engage and impact the broader female health global community. Prior to starting MH Hub, Danielle helped launch and grow Menstrual Hygiene Day (28 May) with WASH United. 

Danielle excels in facilitating global acceptance of menstruation as foundational to the entire female life-cycle (in both the public and private sector). To this end, she recently helped lead the first cohort of the Duke-UNICEF Innovation Accelerator around menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) innovation in East Africa. 

Danielle holds a BA in Politics with Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (USA) and a Masters in Global Visual Communication from Jacobs University (Germany).

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Janet Mbugua (she/her/hers) is a media influencer and gender rights advocate, especially when it comes to menstrual health. She started the Inua Dada Foundation, meaning “uplift the sister”, which works to change policy and provide education to girls and women in need with their period cycles. Among her many accomplishments, publishing her book “My First Time” is one of her most influential projects that includes conversations from women and men about menstruation. 

Today, Janet is here to talk about the Inua Dada Foundation, The Hive Project, and highlight the stories of others involving education around menstruation and its global effects. She also touches on the use of social media to engage audiences in issues that matter, releasing the stigma of social norms around taboo topics. We felt empowered listening to Janet and we know you will too. 

Follow her on Instagram | Check out her website 

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Inua Dada Foundation

The Hive Project and #Better4Kenya

“My First Time”, by Janet Mbugua 

Highlights:

• Inua Dada Foundation
• News feature piece on menstruation: Hearing their stories
• Working toward sustainable products with the high demand from the pandemic 
• The Hive: Influencers to create lasting change

Bio:

Janet Mbugua is a Kenyan Media Personality and Gender Equality Advocate with a focus on Menstrual Equality. She is a TV Host with experience as a News Anchor, Reporter, and Producer both in her country, Kenya and in South Africa. Her experience in Broadcast has seen her cover the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the 2007 and 2013 Kenya elections and the 2012 U.S Elections.

Janet started out in Radio at the age of 19 on Nairobi’s Capital FM. Years later at 23, she became the host of the popular travel show Out and About on KTN and later became a Prime Time News Anchor and Reporter, still on KTN. Janet was then headhunted for the position of News Anchor, Reporter and Producer by e TV in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2009. She then returned to Kenya in 2011, where she joined Citizen TV as a Prime Time News Anchor, Reporter and Producer until April 2017. In 2019 curated and hosted a TV Show called Here And Now on NTV, which focused on socio-economic and political issues affecting young people.

Janet is the founder of the Inua Dada Foundation, an organization whose mission is to create a supportive and accessible environment for primary school girls in Kenya by conducting research to identify issues that hinder learning and working collaboratively with strategic partners to implement sustainable solutions (http://www.inuadadafoundation.org). With a focus on Menstrual Health Management (MHM), the organization has empowered more than 12,000 girls over the last few years and held various media and advocacy events that have reached thousands of people. The organization is moving towards being largely advocacy-based and will be releasing a publication in 2019 to influence policy change and de-stigmatize conversations around MHM and SRH.

In July 2017 she began consulting for The Hive, a US Based organization seeking to amplify Gender Equality messaging in Kenya and other African countries. She is the Project Lead for #Better4Kenya, their first campaign in Kenya.

Some of her achievements include:

• Being named as one of the top three best News Anchors in Kenya by the Media Council of Kenya

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Deborah Jordan Brooks, PH.D, (she/hers) is a university professor, author and researcher specializing in political science and female leadership. As an Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, her teachings focus on women, politics, and the media - while her scholarly research examines female empowerment, public opinion, and political advertising.

Deborah is the founder of IMHER (the International Menstrual Health Entrepreneurship Roundup), a digital resource center for objective, free information about menstrual health education and products that is scalable and regionally-specific. She is also the author of He Runs, She Runs: Why Gender Stereotypes Do Not Harm Women Candidates, along with numerous scholarly articles.

In this episode, she talks to us about the importance (and scarcity) of quality research in the menstrual health space; current research challenges and policy wins; the intersection between female leadership and MHH; and more.

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Get in touch via email: deborah.j.brooks@dartmouth.edu
• Follow IMHER on Facebook: @globalMHM
• Dartmouth Research Profile
• Background on NH bill 

 Highlights from this episode:

• Why she is passionate about Menstrual health & Hygiene (MHH), and what drew her to the field as a political science researcher
• How MHH empowers women, girls and communities at every level
• Why high-quality research is so crucial to making progress in the menstrual movement (hint: government funding “follows the data”)
• Current research challenges and policy wins in the menstrual health space
• How Deborah helped pass a 2019 New Hampshire state law requiring free period products to be implemented in all middle- and high-schools
• How YOU can influence menstrual health policy in your community

Bio: 

Deborah Jordan Brooks is an Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, as well as the coordinator of the Gender and Foreign Policy Program for the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth. Her research examines women as voters and as leaders, public opinion, political advertising, and survey research methods in global health, and she teaches courses on women and leadership, and the media and politics. Previously, Brooks was a Senior Research Director at The Gallup Organization, a survey research firm, where she ran brand management and customer satisfaction project for Fortune 1000 clients. The IMHER project leverages the research skills of her Dartmouth undergraduates to facilitate the efforts of menstrual hygiene organizations around the world.  That project was inspired by what Brooks learned from many of the YALI (Young African Leaders Initiative) Mandela scholars who have worked with the Dickey Center over the years.

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Chipo Chikomo is an award-winning DfG Social Entrepreneur, businesswoman and innovator whose work is revolutionizing the menstrual health space in Zimbabwe. She is passionate about

providing truly sustainable, locally-led solutions to period poverty - and empowering women and girls with the menstrual products, education and technical skills they need to thrive. She is the brilliant mind behind Nhanga Trust (meaning “girl’s bedroom” in the local Shona language): an Enterprise that trains women in underserved communities to sew and distribute DFG pads, tackling period poverty while earning an income for their families. 

Chipo’s story is a testament to the power of resilience and forging your own path forward, no matter what obstacles stand in your way. In this episode, she shares what inspired her to partner with Days for Girls, the challenges faced by Zimbabwean menstruators, the ins and outs of running a trailblazing social enterprise and her vision for the future. Tune in for your weekly dose of inspiration – just in time for International Women’s Day!

Highlights:

• How winning the Obama Administration’s Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders in 2016 led Chipo to Days for Girls
• What first inspired her to tackle period poverty in Zimbabwe: her experience working in a rural, underserved community after college
• The importance of sustainable menstrual health solutions that include comprehensive education and skills training – not just product distributions
• The challenges of being an innovator in this space: how she has stayed focused and grounded throughout challenges and doubt from friends/family
• All about the Nhanga Trust Enterprise, including key partnerships
• Her vision for the next 10 years: reaching every menstruator in Zimbabwe, becoming a household name, developing capacity for humanitarian relief in other countries, and more! 

Connect:

·  Email: Chipo@DaysforGirls.org

·  LinkedIn: Chipo Chikomo

·  Facebook: @NhangaTrust

·  Twitter: @nhangatrust
 

Bio

Chipo Chikomo is a leading social entrepreneur whose vision is to revolutionize the feminine hygiene industry. Chipo not only wants to ensure that women and girls have access to sustainable menstrual health products, but are empowered with the technical expertise to manufacture them locally. Her quest to empower women and girls drove her to start an organization/Enterprise called Nhanga Trust, which in the Shona language means the ‘girls bedroom’. Her passion for empowering women and girls to be the drivers of their destiny led her to partner with Days for Girls International in training underserved women to make reusable sanitary kits for rural school girls.

Chipo received a full scholarship in Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship (2013) from the Kanthari Institute in India, an institute founded by the world renowned Sabriye Tenberken (a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee). In 2015, she was the only female amongst five USADF grant competition winners in Zimbabwe. Most notably, Chipo was part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship 2016: a flagship program started by the former President Barack Obama. She has also participated in the Business and Entrepreneurship track at the University of Iowa in the United States.

Chipo holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Psychology and Sociology from Africa University and is featured on the university website along with other platforms like the 25th Silver Jubilee Anniversary Newsletter (2017). In 2018, she was one of the Green Innovation Youth winn

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Khayrieh Al Assaad is a women’s rights advocate, civil engineer and businesswoman from Akkar Al Atika in North Lebanon. Since joining DfG as our Lebanon Country Representative in 2017, she has led the distribution of more than 10,000 DfG Kits for Syrian refugee women and more than 3,000 Kits for Lebanese women affected by last summer’s Beirut explosions. She also works as a site engineer, coaches a women’s basketball team (started by the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon) and serves as a youth advisor for the U.S. Embassy. We are so lucky to have her in the DFG family for the past six years!

In this second episode of our International Women’s Day series, Khayrieh sits down to talk with us about her ongoing work with refugee communities in Lebanon, how her team pivoted to meet the needs of even more menstruators after the Beirut explosions, and the importance of overcoming widespread menstrual stigma to reach women and girls. 

Highlights:

• The ongoing challenges faced by Syrian an Palestinian refugee women and girls in Lebanon
• Launching a menstruator-first humanitarian response when Beirut was hit by two explosions last August
• Pervasive menstrual taboos in Lebanon
• What inspires her to overcome challenges and continue this work

Connect:

Email: khayrieh@daysforgirls.org 

Bio:

Khayrieh Al Assaad is a women’s rights advocate, civil engineer and businesswoman from Akkar Al Atika, North Lebanon. As DfG Lebanon Country Representative, she has led the distribution of more than 10,000 DfG Kits for Syrian refugee women and more than 3,000 Kits for Lebanese women affected by Beirut explosion.

Khayrieh has been with Days for Girls since 2017. A committed and passionate woman, she also works as a site engineer, coaches a women’s basketball team (started by the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon) and serves as a youth advisor for the U.S. Embassy.

Before joining Days for Girls, Khayrieh worked as a project manager for multiple women and youth empowerment projects in Lebanon, taught English in Turkey and led skills-based education courses for thousands of refugee students in Akkar.

Khayrieh’s diverse experiences continue to inform her work as the leader of DfG Lebanon – and help her fulfill her passion to uplift women and girls throughout the country.

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Marni Sommer is a renowned researcher, professor and author in the menstrual health field. She specializes in puberty research and adolescent-focused interventions, gender and sexual health, and the intersection of public health and education. Marni currently leads the Gender, Adolescent Transitions and Environment (GATE) Program in Columbia University’s Department of Sociomedical Sciences: a research-based program that examines puberty-related challenges and solutions in low-income settings, and aims to improve the integration of MHH into global humanitarian responses.

Marni is also the founder of Grow and Know, an organization that empowers girls and boys going through puberty with story-based, culturally-tailored books about their changing bodies (based on research conducted in nine countries). In this episode, she talks to DfG about the challenges, learning lessons, outcomes and inspiration behind these game-changing projects and so much more. You won’t want to miss this deep dive with one of the best and brightest in menstrual health research!

Highlights:

• The origins and ongoing impact of Grow and Know
• The importance of including boys in puberty and menstrual health education
• Her work with the Gender, Adolescent Transitions, and Environment (GATE) Program – including two recent projects revolving around menstrual health and humanitarian/emergency response efforts.
• What inspired her to start the GATE Period Posse webinar series, which brings together cross-sectional MHH experts to discuss key emerging issues each month.
• The impact of COVID on period poverty and menstrual health management in low-resource contexts.
• Ongoing challenges for menstruators experiencing homelessness in urban settings and possible solutions (like improved budget allocation for period products and better administrative policies in shelters).

Connect:

• Email: ms2778@columbia.edu
• Website: Grow and Know: www.growandknow.org | GATE program: www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/gate
• LinkedIn: Marni Sommer
• Twitter: @marnisommer

Bio: 

Marni Sommer, DrPH, MSN, RN, has worked in global health and development on issues ranging from improving access to essential medicines to humanitarian relief in conflict settings. Dr. Sommer's particular areas of expertise include conducting participatory research with adolescents, understanding and promoting healthy transitions to adulthood, the intersection of public health and education, gender and sexual health, and the implementation and evaluation of adolescent-focused interventions.

Her doctoral research explores girls' experiences of menstruation, puberty and schooling in Tanzania, and the ways in which the onset of puberty might be disrupting girls' academic performance and healthy transition to adulthood. Dr. Sommer presently leads the Gender, Adolescent Transitions and Environment (GATE) Program, based in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences. GATE explores the intersections of gender, health, education and the environment for girls and boys transitioning into adulthood in low-income countries and in the United States. GATE also generates research and practical resources focused on improving the integration of menstrual hygiene management and gender supportive sanitation solutions into global humanitarian response.

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Ina Jurga is a menstrual health innovator and sanitation engineer specializing in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) development. She has led partnership-building and education projects for international NGO (and Days for Girls partner) WASH United since 2012, and serves as the international coordinator for Menstrual Hygiene Day. She is passionate about creating collective impact for menstruators on a global scale.

In this episode, Ina sits down with DfG to talk about her work with WASH United, the relationship between menstrual health and the SDGs, global gaps and advancements in MHH advocacy, and everything you need to know about the menstrual movement’s most important day of the year: Menstrual Hygiene Day). 

Highlights:

• The connection between WASH and MHH, and why WASH United started focusing on menstrual health management
• Why menstrual health is relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals
• How Ina was called to the menstrual health space as a sanitation civil engineer 
• Menstrual Hygiene Day: this year’s theme, focus and ways to get involved
• WASH United’s advocacy efforts to raise awareness and funding for menstrual health issues
• Ina’s assessment of MHH progress and gaps in countries around the world
• All about the Period Tax Project: a free online resource for information about period taxes and campaigns around the world

Connect:

Ina

• Email: ina@menstrualhygieneday.org | Ina.jurga@wash-united.org
• LinkedIn: Ina Jurga

Menstrual Hygiene Day

• Twitter: @MHDay28May
• Facebook/Instagram: @MenstrualHygieneDay
• Resources: 
  • MH Day: www.menstrualhygienday.org
  • Making the Case for Menstrual Health and Hygiene: https://menstrualhygieneday.org/making-the-case-for-investing-in-menstrual-health-and-hygiene-introducing-a-new-standard/
  • MHM & SDG Infographic: https://menstrualhygieneday.org/project/infographic-mhm-and-sdgs/
  • Menstruation Bracelet: https://menstrualhygieneday.org/braceletguide/

Other Websites

• WASH United: www.wash-united.org
• Sustaimable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
• Period Tax: www.Periodtax.org
• Making the Case for Menstrual Health and Hygiene: https://menstrualhygieneday.org/making-the-case-for-investing-in-menstrual-health-and-hygiene-introducing-a-new-standard/
• MHM & SDG Infographic: https://menstrualhygieneday.org/project/infographic-mhm-and-sdgs/

Bio:

Ina Jurga has more than 15 years of experiences in development cooperation in the areas of WASH, and has worked for WASH United since 2012. WASH United is an international NGO based in Berlin, focusing on advocacy and education around water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and menstrual health & hygiene (MHH). She is the international coordinator for Menstrual Hygiene Day, which was initiated by WASH United in 2014, in addition to overseeing education projects. 

Ina is a civil engineer by training, and also hol

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Kelly Olson is a highly-acclaimed puberty book author and former sex ed teacher, with a passion for helping youth navigate coming-of-age challenges. Her critically-endorsed book, “Chill Out & Stop Making This Weird: A Girl’s Survival Guide Extraordinaire,” follows the journey of a young girl going through the ups and downs of puberty – including starting menstruation, developing her first crush and more. It’s rich in humor, heart, relatable characters and science-based information, and is informed by Kelly’s 20 year career teaching reproductive health to elementary school youth.

In this episode, Kelly dives into the inspiration behind the book, the message she hopes to convey to young girls about their changing bodies, the importance of empowering youth with timely and accurate puberty information, and what she took away from two decades as a reproductive health teacher. She also talks about her passion for Days for Girls - and why she decided to donate a portion of all her proceeds to our mission! 

“The future is a place that we create. And I want the future story to be written - rewritten for young women” – Kelly Olson

Highlights:

• What inspired Kelly to write "Chill Out And Stop Making This Weird: A Girl's Survival Guide Extraordinaire,” and how to book was informed by her 20 year tenure as an elementary school teacher 
• The importance of providing accurate, timely, age-appropriate information for pubescent youth – and how using fictional narrative, with a healthy dose of humor, lends itself well to tough/deep/potentially “awkward” conversations 
• Who can benefit from reading this book (hint: it’s not only preteens and moms! Kelly has also gotten great feedback from dads, grandparents and everyone in between)
• What Kelly learned as a sex ed teacher, how she overcame stigma to facilitate a classroom culture of openness, and how those experiences shaped her book
• Plot points, themes and character development in Chill Out (spoiler warning!) and what her plans are for future writing projects
• Kelly’s personal “puberty story” 
• Why she donates a portion of all her proceeds to Days for Girls – and why she’s so passionate about partnering with us

Connect:

Email: kellyolsonbooks@gmail.com

Website: https://kellyolsonbooks.com/

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @KellyOlsonBooks

Bio:

Kelly Olson’s book, Chill Out & Stop Making This Weird: A Girl’s Survival Guide Extraordinaire, shot to #1 on Amazon’s “Children’s Health and Maturing” books in its first week and has caught the attention of Books Editor for O Magazine, Oprah’s Magazine, and the coordinator of Oprah’s Book Club. It has received star reviews from RHOBH, mom and actress Kyle Richards, and numerous moms and dads alike. 

Kelly discovered the most effective way to help children navigate the complex and intimate topic of puberty in over twenty years of teaching. She felt compelled to expand her reach and provide tools for children coming-of-age, to decrease anxiety of the unknown and to help eliminate awkwardness. Kelly highlights the importance of having open parent communication, the value of education and how we are all in this together.

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Sipiwo Matshoba is the Chief Director of Social Empowerment and Participation for South Africa’s Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. He is fiercely committed to the pursuit of about gender equity and women’s empowerment - with a special passion for helping girls stay in school and go on to become productive members of society (without menstruation getting in the way). He has worked for the South African government for more than 25 years, and is currently focused on developing the Sanitary Dignity Implementation Framework, which ensures access to menstrual health products for underserved women and girls.

In this episode, Sipiwo talks to us about his work with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, his thoughts on gender inequality and its implications for society at large, what it was like to launch the South African Coalition for Menstrual Health and Hygiene during COVID-19 – and even shares his experience meeting Nelson Mandela as a college student!

Notable Quotes

“The most important thing is the notion of human empowerment and gender equality…how you can never achieve democracy and an ethical society without the affirmation of woman, first and foremost”

“Women give birth to us, as human beings. And it makes no sense, it's absolutely ridiculous, to think that [they] can just be deemed inferior, or could not be able to access specific privileges. Because of patriarchy, culture, religion, and all the prejudices that are there in society.”

Highlights:

• How Sipiwo’s work as a policymaker has evolved since starting with the South African government in 1994, right after the nation gained its independence
• What fuels his passion for menstrual health management and reproductive health issues – and why everyone should care about women’s empowerment 
• What this work has taught him about the driving sociopolitical factors behind gender inequity and period poverty – including prejudice, patriarchy, and the lack menstruator-friendly WASH infrastructures
• The importance of helping girls stay in school, achieve their full potential and go on to become an active contributing members of society, regardless of menstruation
• How unequal educational barriers for girls and boys go on to shape the structure of the economy and society as a whole
• Sipiwo’s experience meeting Nelson Mandela as a college student
• The significance of launching the South African Coalition for Menstrual Health and Hygiene in 2020 – and how the coalition overcame pandemic-related challenges to make a difference in its first year
• Why it’s important for government and civil society (as well as different NGOs and research orgs) to work together and collaborate for optimal impact

Connect:

Email: sipiwo.matshoba@gmail.gov.za

LinkedIn: Sipiwo Matshoba

Website: http://www.women.gov.za/

Facebook: Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities 

Twitter: @DWYPD_ZA 

Bio:

 Sipiwo Matshoba is the Chief Director of Social Empowerment and Participation for South Africa’s Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (SADWYPD). He has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy and Ethics from the University of Johannesburg and has been working the South African government for over 25 years.  

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Chris Bobel is a scholar of social movements, an author and a professor specializing in the intersection of feminist theory and menstrual health activism. She lectures on Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts, served as president of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research and has helmed a wide range of groundbreaking literary works pertaining to the menstrual movement. 

In this episode, Chris shares deep insights from her 20 year career in menstrual health advocacy and research – like how studying the body can provide a window into social hierarchies and norms; the consequences of corporate industry exploits period shame to sell products; and how the “pad promotion” approach to menstrual health is ultimately a byproduct of misogyny and capitalism. She also dives into two of her most noteworthy books, the beginnings of her career in social movement scholarship and much more!   

Notable Quotes

“Studying the body is a window into hierarchies and marginalization and just generally the values that shape our everyday realities.”

“The body is…a messy place. It's a place of contradiction. The body itself is a site of power and pleasure and potential and peril. And so when you dig into understanding what we say about bodies, how we manage our bodies, whose value whose bodies we value more than others, I really think we can unpack how the world works in a lot of ways.”

“The language of menstruation is really bound by the vocabulary of sexism, and the grammar of capitalism. And what I mean by that is, we think about menstruation as a woman's problem to fix, it's her burden and it's her responsibility. Because it's rooted in this idea, this misogyny, of hating women and disrespecting their bodies, and how their bodies perform. And the grammar of capitalism, which is: the body is a problem to be solved in consumer culture.”

Highlights:

• How studying the body can give us insights into power, privilege and how the world works
• What it means to be a scholar of social movements
• How she came to combine feminist activism with menstrual health research
• How deeply menstrual stigma, secrecy and “the necessity of silence” are embedded in our cultural fabric - and how product marketers reinforce and capitalize on that shame to sell period products
• What inspired her book New Blood, which explores the menstrual activist movement in the global south – and key difference she’s found in low/middle vs high income countries
• The role of The Palgrave Handbook for Menstruation Studies as a helpful resource for all people in the MHH field
• The role of silence in perpetuating violence 
• The consequences of media and society viewing menstruation through a narrow, capitalistic and misogynistic lens 

Connect:

Email: chris.bobel@umb.edu

Twitter: @ChrisBobel 

Resources:

Palgrave Handbook for Critical Menstruation Studies

Scholarly Anthology (Be Press)

Bio:

Chris Bobel is Professor and past-Chair of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA. She finds the body, especially the body on the margins, a rich site where social norms, cultural anxieties and political agendas come to life. As a scholar of social movements, she is curious about how feminist thinking becomes feminist doing at the most intimate and immediate levels. At the intersection of these interests lies menstrual activism with a research and advocacy focus that has sustained Chris’s interest for nearly 20 years. 

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Christine Mwangi is a social change agent, global citizen and founder of Be A Rose, Inc.: a nonprofit tackling period poverty in Grand Rapids, MI. Be A Rose, Inc is on a mission to connect local women and girls with sustainable period products (including those made by DfG!) and health education at zero cost – through partnerships with local orgs, schools and more. They distribute around 60,000 pads per year, including 1,000-2,000 each month to underserved menstruators via food banks.

In this episode, Christine shares the joys and challenges of leaving the business world to tackle period poverty; what inspired her to fight for menstrual equity in Grand Rapids; the inspiration and impact of Be A Rose; and so much more! 

Highlights:

• What inspired Christine to leave her pharmacist career to start her nonprofit, Be A Rose, Inc.
• Challenges faced by menstruators in Grand Rapids, MI, and what Be A Rose is Christine’s team is doing to address them
• What it means to “be a Rose” – the inspiration behind the namesake
• How Christine found the confidence, savvy and motivation to strike out on her own to help change the world 
• The importance of prioritizing eco-friendly menstrual solutions where possible, and why Be A Rose decided to “go green” this year by promoting environmentally conscious products

Connect:

Website: www.bearose.org

Instagram/Facebook: @bearosetoday 

Bio:

Christine Mwangi is a change agent and global citizen who has utilized her entrepreneurial background to establish Be A Rose, Inc., a charitable organization helping educate hundreds of marginalized women on critical health matters. A global citizen who has lived, worked, and been educated in Africa, Europe and North America, she has a bachelor’s degree from Towson University and master of pharmacy from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

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Celeste Mergens is the founder and CEO of Days for Girls International. Since 2008, she has grown the organization from a small group of local sewists into an award-winning, global NGO serving menstruators and their communities in 144 countries (and counting). A heart-centered and compassion-driven visionary, Celeste has dedicated her life to showing every girl, everywhere that she is strong, worthy and capable of extraordinary things – and giving her the tools she needs to thrive, starting with menstrual health.

In this very special podcast episode, Celeste walks us through the founding of Days for Girls, the inspiration behind the mission and what drives her to lead this work every single day (including her own story of trauma and resilience). She also dives into the power of locally-led solutions, the multilayered impact of the DfG Enterprise Program, the benefits of washable period products…and so much more!

Highlights: 

• The DfG origin story: how working with girls in a Kenyan orphanage prompted the birth of Days for Girls
• How Celeste mobilized the first DfG volunteers and garnered support for the cause through the “power of invitation”
• Why reaching every girl, everywhere needs to be a global, collaborative movement
• How Celeste’s own experience growing up with poverty, homelessness and trauma fueled a core motivation to show girls that they matter – regardless of their circumstance
• How the menstrual equity movement fits into the broader feminist movement 
• Why locally-led solutions and empowering local leaders is the future of Days for Girls
• How the Social Entrepreneurship program empowers local women, families and entire communities to thrive
• The importance of period product choice and the case for washable pads
• How you, the listener, can help Days for Girls meet our most urgent needs and bring sustainable solutions to more menstruators than ever

Quotes:

Why shattering the stigma around menstruation is critical to addressing the roots of gender inequity

“For me, this conversation of shifting that stigma is actually at the root - at the base - of how we bought into the lie that women should ever be less than completely at the table. I believe this is one of the roots to it. So for me, I am a lion about this because we must change this….this is something we can shift with correct solutions that work and conversations and education. How amazing is that? I love, love, love that this is one of the things that is at the root. Because this? This one we've got.”

On the importance of menstrual equity

“There are so many things that are hard to change in this world, but reversing menstrual equity, and the gender inequity that happens as a result [isn’t one of them]. And the wounds, if you will, the body pain that we share…can heal with something as small as a pad and education, opening doors to end that inequity and to bring shattered stigma and shame.”

How DfG pads change lives and set menstruators free

“If you don't have what you need, it's truly bondage by your basic biology, and how can it not affect your confidence? So women, menstruators and girls all over the world should have what they need… if you have something you can count on month after month, if this little bundle of a pad that can be in your glove compartment or your purse, and no matter what happens to economic supply chain resources in your community, you have something you can count on. It is freedom.”

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Puleng is a public health education and gender specialist with more than 20 years of experience managing programs within the HIV, gender, sexual and reproductive health and human rights spaces. She is passionate about Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and also cares deeply about social change communications and community capacity development. She has worked with the United Nations and many government ministries as well as national and regional NGOs in various capacities. At present, she is a member of the WHO SocialNet: a team of 23 social scientists trained to integrate social science-based interventions into health emergency work. 

In this episode, Puleng shares what drives her as a fierce advocate of gender equity, what it means to be a social scientist working in the public health sector and why social/cultural elements must be factored into emergency health interventions. She also unpacks the importance of ‘community capacity enhancement’ – and why lasting change must always start from the inside out.

Notable Quotes

“That has been my mantra: that the answer lies within us. It lies within the person that wants to make a change, it lies within the person that is affected by inequality, it lies within the person that really aspires to see change - either change from getting out of patriarchy, change from getting out of inequality, change from getting out of poverty, from out of stigma and discrimination, and so on. So that that is my passion.”

Highlights:

• How Puleng’s feminist spirit and upbringing inspired her prolific career as a gender equity advocate
• Her personal trauma with gender discrimination in the workplace, and how it deepened her resolve to fight for the rights of all women and girls 
• All about WHO SocialNet’s efforts to integrate social science interventions into emergency health work 
• Why identifying the social/cultural norms, values, dynamics and capital that exist within communities can help improve outcomes in any public health crisis 
• How taking a social scientist approach to issues like vaccine hesitancy can improve COVID-19 outcomes around the world
• The importance of community engagement and risk communication in health emergencies - and what happens when the health sector fails to prioritize these
• Community capacity enhancement: why meaningful change is only possible when challenges are contextualized and those most affected are at the center of solutions 

Connect:

Email: Pulengletsie@yahoo.co.uk

Twitter: @PulengL

Facebook: @PulengLetsie

LinkedIn: Puleng Letsie

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Brittany Barreto is the co-founder, executive director and podcast host of FemTech Focus: a nonprofit that’s revolutionizing the women’s health tech (femtech) industry through connection, capital and collaborative innovation. She’s on a mission to disrupt the male-centric status quo in healthcare, and bring much-needed focus and funding to underserved women’s issues.

As a geneticist-turned-venture-capitalist (and founder of the world’s first ever DNA-based dating app), Brittany is a true trailblazer at the intersection of entrepreneurship and science. Since founding FemTech Focus in March 2020, the organization has bloomed into a unique launchpad for healthcare workers, entrepreneurs and investors to come together and improve health outcomes for women everywhere – in addition to becoming the #1 femtech podcast in the world.

In this episode, Brittany dives into her journey as a scientist and entrepreneur, the founding and evolution of FemTech focus, the pervasiveness of gender bias at all levels of healthcare/research, and why tackling gendered inequities in the health sector is vital to the empowerment of women everywhere.   

Notable Quotes:

“Women are so much more than just birthing, we're more than wombs. We're so much more. And we deserve all of the innovation, all of the funding…and we deserve to not be censored.”

Highlights:

• What inspired Brittany’s career as a geneticist and her journey toward becoming a “woman of influence”
• All about Pheramor, the first-of-its-kind DNA-based dating app that Brittany launched in 2016 
• How her transition into venture capitalism sparked a passion for women’s health innovation and femtech, and ultimately led her to Start FemTech Focus 
• How FemTech Focus has evolved over the past year from a fledgeling podcast to a groundbreaking nonprofit 
• Highlights from the FemTech Focus Podcast: interviews with the founder of CBD-infused tampon company, Daye, and the CEO of Evofem Biosciences, which created the first non-hormonal contraception 
• The impact of historical and ongoing gender bias and inequity in the health sector, including the exclusion of women from clinical trials until 1993  

Connect/Resources:

Email: brittany@femtechfocus.org

Website: femtechfocus.org

References: Women In Clinical Research

Bio:

 Dr. Brittany Barreto is the Co-Founder, Executive Director and Podcast Host of FemTech Focus. While finishing her PhD in genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, Brittany became the CEO and Co-Founder of the revolutionary dating app Pheramor. The ambitious venture was the first nationwide DNA-based dating app. She then embarked on a new path into venture capital as the Senior Venture Associate at Capital Factory, where she was tasked with launching the fund's Houston branch. Under her leadership, the Houston accelerator portfolio grew by an impressive 205% and she led due diligence on several successful investments. Brittany now has her sights set on advancing the women’s health and wellness community through her latest world-changing venture: FemTech Focus. She is host of the FemTech Focus Podcast which has over 100 episodes, 30K downloads and subscribers in 100 countries. FemTech Focus has assisted hundreds of femtech founders to build, launch and succeed through their events, resources and market research reports. Additionally, Brittany is a founding partner and emerging fund manager at Coyote Ventures, an early-stage femtech investment firm.

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Beatrice Dixon is the founder and CEO of The Honeypot Company: an innovative, natural, plant-based feminine care system that’s changing the intimate wellness game for all people with vaginas (and a treasured Days for Girls partner!). The idea for The Honeypot came to Beatrice in a visionary dream – first as a means of solving her own vaginal health problem, before blossoming into a revolutionary product line for women and vagina-owners across the country.

In this episode, Beatrice shares the unique origin story of The Honeypot; the company’s current offerings and social responsibility partnerships; and why she’s so passionate about leveraging her business to make a meaningful global impact. She also talks about the highs and lows of starting her own business from scratch – and leaves us with inspiring words about the tremendous value in struggle and resilience.

Notable Quotes:

“I just believe that it's important as humans, as the human race, that we find a way to come together more and be kind to each other. Lift our vibration on how we think. Figure out how to how to just have our society be an equitable one. I mean, will that ever happen? I don't know. I just think that it's important, because we're all just trying to survive….I want to do whatever we can, I want to put any kind of dent into the system possible, for humanity, because I am a part of it, you know?”

“Whether your challenge is being Black, having a vagina, being Latin, trying to raise money or whatever, or just being a person of color or a minority because you're a woman, or whatever the thing is…it makes you better. And that's what matters. When you go through stuff, especially when it's really hard, it just makes you sharper, it makes your thin skin thicker. It makes your eyes be open, it makes you pay attention. It makes you be aware. And if you really do it with a lot of kindness and humility and gratefulness, it just gives you this peace, that everything's gonna be alright.”

Highlights:

• The Honeypot founder’s story: how a dream helped Bea solve her ongoing struggle with bacterial vaginosis, before sharing her solution with the world.
• Everything that The Honeypot offers for humans with vaginas: from herbal menstrual pads to vulva moisturizers.
• Why having a vaginal skincare routine is just as important as caring for your hair, face and teeth.
• The Honeypot’s corporate social responsibility program and ongoing partnerships.
• Beatrice’s passion for creating a more equitable world, and why investing in global social justice issues (especially those that uplift women and girls) is important to her.
• The greatest challenges and rewards she has experienced on her journey into business ownership.
• How struggle, hardship and resilience fuels personal growth like nothing else can – and ultimately makes you stronger.

Connect:

Website: thehoneypot.co

Instagram: @thehoneypotco | @iambeadixon

Facebook: @thehoneypotco

Twitter: @thehoneypotco

Bio:

Beatrice Dixon had been suffering with bacterial vaginosis for eight months, when one night an ancestor appeared to her in a dream and provided her with a list of ingredients to heal herself. The concoction worked, and Dixon realized that she had something special to share. From that visionary dream, the formula for a powerful and effective herb-powered vaginal wash was created in 2014. 

Dixon launched The Honeypot Company, a plant-derived vaginal wellness line created with the goal of providing humans with vaginas healthy alternatives to traditional feminine care products that are free of unwanted chemicals, carcinogens and sulfates. The rest is history. The H

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Pam Geist is the brand director of This is L.: a mission-driven period care brand dedicated to making exceptional menstrual products accessible for all. L. offers a wide range of beautiful, sustainable, body-friendly tampons, pads, liners and wipes at an affordable cost – while also working with non-profits like Days for Girls to support menstrual equity projects around the world. As one of our biggest impact partners, their generosity has allowed us to serve thousands of vulnerable menstruators in need.

In this interview, Pam dives into the founding, mission and model of This is L.; how their two-globally business approach is making a difference for menstruators in the U.S. and abroad; and her thoughts on our economy’s shift toward “businesses as forces for good.”

Highlights

• How This is L. is making period care accessible for menstruators around the world.
• Why L.’s unique balance of affordability and sustainability speaks to consumers.
• L.’s origin story: how founder Talia Frankel, a former photojournalist, was inspired to increase period care accessibility after capturing the humanitarian impact of menstrual taboo, AIDS and lack of education opportunities for girls in Africa and India.
• All about L.’s solidarity model: how they’re making a global impact by supporting local leaders and strategically-selected nonprofits like DfG.
• What it means to be a B Corp. Certified company with a “give back” business model 

Connect

• Website: www.thisisl.org
• Instagram: @thisislperiod

Bio

Pam Geist is the brand director of This is L.: a B Corp. Certified, mission-driven personal and period care brand. This is L. offers tampons, pads, liners and wipes made with organic cotton, without the organic price. And they recently launched a pH balanced intimate wash designed for intimate skin, free of fragrance and full of skin-loving ingredients like essential oils and vitamin E. Pam attained her MBA from the Wharton School and her BA and MA in English at Stanford University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Born and raised in New York, Pam currently resides in Cincinnati, enjoying the tremendous cost-of -living downward adjustment. In her spare time she volunteers with the Ohio Justice and Policy Center as well as with Cincinnati Therapeutic Riding and Horsemanship. This is L. is an impact partner at Days for Girls, funding a variety of different projects around the world.

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Emily Bell McCormick is the founder of The Policy Project: a nonpartisan group of individuals and organizations that advocate for healthy, long-term U.S. policy changes at the local and national level. She started the collective after a visit to South Africa’s Apartheid Museum awakened her to the massive power of “a thousand tiny policies.” Now, she spends her days harnessing that power to tackle gender-based inequities that limit women and girls.

In this episode, Emily talks with us about a wide range of policy issues affecting menstruators in the United States, including the tampon tax, lack of free period products in public buildings and gaps in menstrual health education. She also offers pearls of wisdom for aspiring advocates - and shares why women claiming a seat at the table (through bipartisan advocacy) is the only way to create long-lasting, meaningful change.

Notable Quotes

“The more voices we can add to these kinds of issues, the better. These issues don't belong to one person, or one organization. They belong to all of us. So we all have a role in ensuring healthy policy moving forward. And that role can be pretty simple; it can be as simple as calling your elected official and just saying, “hey, I care about this” …and feeling empowered to do it. Because it's their job to listen to you, and to hear what matters to you.”

Highlights

• The origin story of The Policy Project
• How to turn inspiration into action in the advocacy space
• The problem with the lack of gender-equitable representation in U.S. legislature 
• Why providing period products in schools, homeless shelters and prisons should be a legislative priority – and how education that fights menstrual stigma can help these policies gain traction
• All about the tampon tax
• The importance of using strategic, audience-targeted messaging and language when trying to pass disruptive policies
• What’s next in the pipeline for advocacy work that supports gender equity in a post-pandemic United States

Connect

Website: thepolicyproject.org

Instagram: @emilybellmccormick or @thepolicyproject

Email: emilybellmccormick@gmail.com

Bio

Emily Bell McCormick is founder of The Policy Project— a group of individuals and like-minded organizations that help move forward healthy, long-term policy at a local and national level. Emily is also the editor of Utah’s NBC affiliate KSL Studio 5 "Smarter" series--informing viewers about issues, government, policies and politics of the time and helping to empower viewers to find their place in it all. Emily is an experienced communication strategy consultant with a history of working in a myriad of industries including government, policy, NGOs, tech and fashion. Skilled in public affairs, advocacy, public policy, public speaking, public relations, campaign management, investor relations, strategic communication planning, events and writing. Master’s degree from The Ohio State University and a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University. 

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Eva Marie Carney is Founder and Board President of the Kwek Society: an organization working to eliminate period poverty in Native schools and communities across the United States. She is a human rights lawyer and an elected legislator of the Shawnee, Oklahoma-based Citizen Potawatomi Nation – of which is also a citizen.

In this episode, Eva dives into her passion for fighting (and shining a light on) menstrual inequities in tribal nations; how the Kwek Society is serving rural, pubescent and un-homed menstruators; and all about the organization’s evolving impact in schools and communities across the country.

Highlights:

• What inspired Eva to become a menstrual equity champion within the Native American community
• The unique and universal factors driving period poverty for Native American menstruators – including financial and resource barriers in rural reservations and lack of free products in schools
• How the Kwek Society is fighting period poverty in Native-majority schools and communities across statelines
• The importance of reaching communities in isolated, hard-to-access areas
• All about the “Berry Fast,” an Ojibwe/Potawatomi tradition that celebrates the beginning of a girl’s menstruation
• How Eva’s role as an elected legislator for the Potawatomi Nation has shaped the Kwek Society’s impact and reach

Connect:

Website: kweksociety.org
Instagram: @kweksociety
Twitter: @kweksociety
Email: kweksociety@gmail.com

Bio:

Eva Marie Carney is The Kwek Society’s Founder and Board President. She holds elected office as a Member of the Legislature of the Shawnee, Oklahoma-based Citizen Potawatomi Nation and works as a human rights lawyer through Just Neighbors, a nonprofit law firm. Eva is a citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and lives in Virginia. She graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BA in history, and received her JD from Stanford Law School. Her two adult children actively support The Kwek Society and their dog Bailey serves as the organization’s Chief of Morale.

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Christina Lowery is the CEO of Girl Rising: a nonprofit that’s shifting the way the world values and invests in girls. Decades of research show that girls’ access to education and opportunity is the single most effective factor in transforming global issues like poverty, gender equality and climate change. Through storytelling campaigns, youth mentorship and advocacy work, GR is closing the gendered opportunity gap and building girls’ capacity to change the world.

In this episode, Christina dives into the power of storytelling for social change, why investing in girls’ education benefits us all, and how Girl Rising is fostering girls’ education and empowerment in twelve countries around the globe.

Notable Quotes

“This powerful story about what happens when you educate girls, [we believe that] if we could turn that into an engaging, creative, dynamic, emotional story for all kinds of viewers - from parents to presidents, boys and girls - that we could get people to care about this issue, and ultimately get them to take action.”

Highlights

• How Christina turned her passion for documentary storytelling into a groundbreaking platform that advocates for girls’ empowerment
• Why closing the gendered education gap creates a ripple effect that pays dividends for generations 
• The relationship between women’s empowerment, girls’ education and climate change
• How Girl Rising is harnessing the power of storytelling to change the world 
• Girl Rising’s ongoing efforts to challenge harmful gender norms, foster self-confidence and build storytelling skills in youth

Connect

Website: www.girlrising.org

Instagram/Twitter: @girlrising

Bio

Christina Lowery is the CEO of Girl Rising (GR), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to change the way the world values girls and invests in their potential. Driven by decades of research demonstrating that girls' access to education and opportunity is the single most effective factor in transforming pressing global issues as varied as health, poverty, gender equality, and climate change, GR creates original media and campaigns about the universal benefits of educating girls. Working with local partners, GR also creates curricula and culturally-relevant tools for on-the-ground programs and educational initiatives. 

GR proudly collaborates with many organizations, companies, influencers, teachers, students and grass-roots activists under the banner of girl’s equality. GR tells stories about girls who face daunting barriers to their independence and stand up to them with determination and courage. GR strategically deploys these stories to fuel and strengthen social movements - informing and inspiring people to take action for girls and gender equality. Additionally, GR works with local partners, adapting these stories into culturally relevant educational tools and curricula to build confidence and agency in girls and to change attitudes and social norms within their communities. Girl Rising is currently working in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Guatemala, Kenya and the United States. 

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Kiya Gezahegne is a feminist researcher and lecturer specializing in migrant studies, adolescent research and gender policy. She is passionate about harnessing the power of research to drive more supportive policies for women, girls, youth and refugees across Ethiopia. Kiya currently serves as the in-country qualitative researcher for Gender and Adolescents: Global Evidence (GAGE), and also contributes to the Ethiopian National Women’s Policy. 

In this special World Refugee episode, Kiya shares her insights into the Ethiopian refugee experience (including hardships specific to women and girls), the importance of adolescent empowerment in driving nationwide change, and the role of research in transforming gender equity paradigms nationwide.

Highlights:

• How GAGE, the world’s largest study on gender in adolescence, is working to empower youth in developing countries
• What inspired Kiya to specialize in refugee research and elevating the struggles of migrants
• Why so many Ethiopian migrants are fleeing poverty, ethnic conflict and political repression to seek refuge in the Middle East, Europe and the States – and how their destinations are influenced by an underground industry of migration “brokers”
• The most common hardships faced by women along these migration routes, including sexual violence, unwanted pregnancies, physical abuse and financial pressures from the family they left behind
• The importance of adolescent-specific research in driving nationwide change
• Kiya’s work with the Ethiopian National Women’s Policy and its impact on gender equity

Connect:

Website: www.gage.odi.org 

Linked In: Kiya Gezahegne 

Bio:

Kiya Gezahegne is an experienced feminist researcher and lecturer based at the Social Anthropology at the Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She has been involved in ethnographic research on a range of adolescent related areas including education, health and nutrition, voice and agency, psycho social well-being, economic empowerment and bodily integrity. Her other research interests include international migration, refugee studies, gender policy, religious identity, borderland conflict, marginalization and slavery in the contemporary world. She also contributes to policy processes including the analysis of the Ethiopian National Women’s Policy. She has authored several publications related to adolescents including recent publication on "Adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Ethiopia and Rwanda: a qualitative exploration of the role of social norms", among others. She is in-country qualitative researcher for Gender and Adolescents: Global Evidence (GAGE) project run by ODI (Oversees Development Institute).

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Meet Jess Straight and Emma Cihanowyz: college students, menstrual equity champions and leaders of the Days for Girls Club at Penn State University – serving as president/founder (Jess) VP of Advocacy/Administrator (Emma).

During the pandemic, DfG Penn State pivoted from sewing kits to running period product drives and polling hundreds of students about the state of menstrual equity on campus. Fueled by their research findings, the club is now working with student government to make menstrual products accessible and free for all menstruators at Penn State.

In this inspiring interview, Jess and Emma walk us through their efforts to fight menstrual injustice and stigma on campus, the challenges faced by menstruators at Penn State, and what they learned from distributing 1,000 menstrual cups to students in last fall’s Campus Cup event.

Highlights

• What inspired Jess and Emma to get involved with Days for Girls
• How the Days for Girls Penn State Club (DfG PSU) has transitioned from a “sewing club” to a true “period club”
• Key findings from Penn State Club’s college-wide menstrual equity survey, which revealed that 2500+ students have skipped class or work due to lack of period products
• Prevailing menstrual health issues on campus, including lack of knowledge about free product resources and lack of disposal facilities (particularly in gender neutral bathrooms)
• Their experience partnering with the student body government to address period poverty
• All about Campus Cup, an event where DfG PSU distributed almost 1,000 Organic Cup menstrual cups on campus 
• Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about menstrual cups and why they’re such a great, sustainable solution
• The importance of open dialogue about menstruation
• What’s next for Jess and Emma in their college careers

Connect

Instagram: @daysforgirlsPSU | @jess.strait | @emma.cihanowyz

LinkedIn: Jess Strait | Emma Cihanowyz

Bio

Emma Cihanowyz is a current undergraduate student at Pennsylvania State University in the Schreyer Honors College, studying International Politics, Spanish, and French with a Women and Gender Studies minor. She is the first Vice President of Advocacy for Days for Girls at Penn State and has been a part of the organization for two years, serving on both the operations team and as administrator. Her plans after graduating are to pursue a career in law.

Jess Strait is the president and a founding member of the Days for Girls Club at Penn State University. During university remote learning, Days for Girls PSU pivoted from sewing kits to socially-distanced activities like collecting period products in competition with a rival university and including community experts in the conversation around period poverty. By surveying hundreds of students on their menstrual health needs, the club is now advocating with student government to make free menstrual products accessible on campus. During fall of 2020, Jess led a project to provide almost 1000 menstrual cups to Penn State students through the CampusCup program. She is now preparing to write her thesis on how programs like Campus Cup help fight period stigma on college campuses.

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Mira Kaddoura is a feminist advocate, creative master-mind and the founder of Red & Co.: a female and minority owned boutique consultancy that helps brands make a meaningful impact on society. A staunch advocate of female leadership, gender equality and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mira is passionate about harnessing creative campaigns to help build a more equitable world for all.

Join us as Mira talks about her experience leading one of the world’s only woman-owned advertising agencies, her drive to challenge inequitable status quos through creative media, the importance of centering diverse voices and talent, and the imprint she’s left on our cultural landscape through campaigns for Google, Netflix and more.

Highlights

• How a college art project about media influence and free-thinking landed Mira her first job at one of the world’s top creative agencies, Wieden+Kennedy
• Mira’s experience with the gendered wage gap in the professional world
• How Red & Co. is disrupting ad industry and cultural norms through innovative campaigns, like:
  • “Made With Code,” a gender diversification campaign for Google that got 5 million girls into coding 
  • Reinventing Netflix’s brand strategy to center diversity, equity and inclusion in a way that revolutionized Hollywood streaming 
• Mira’s thoughts on how the advertising, branding and marketing space can do better to be more inclusive and equitable – and how she practices this work in her professional and philanthropic endeavors

Connect

Website: www.redandcoagency.com

Instagram/Twitter: @MiraKaddoura | @redandcoagency

Bio

Mira Kaddoura is founder of Red & Co.: a female and minority owned boutique consultancy that helps brands make a larger, more meaningful impact on society. Red & Co. created “Made with Code,” one of Google’s most important initiatives to diversify the tech industry and Netflix’s lauded brand campaign, “Make Room,” which positioned Netflix as a champion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. 

Mira got started at Wieden+Kennedy, Nike’s long-time advertising agency, creating award-winning campaigns for Nike, The Girl Effect & Travel Oregon. As a staunch advocate of female leadership, gender equity, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, her work has been featured on Good Morning America, in the New York Times, Fast Company and other prominent media platforms. Most recently, she hosted a TEDx Talk called “How women can change the world by asking ‘Why not me?” In 2019, Mira was awarded Ad Age’s “Women to Watch" and Adweek’s “Creative 100” and Portland Advertising Federation’s “Ad Person of the Year.” Her work has also won Cannes Lions, TED’s Ads Worth Spreading, D&AD Pencils, Effies, Clios, Communications Arts and Webbys. 

Mira is known for her conceptual interactive art projects that challenge rigid cultural assumptions around feminism and biology. Her philanthropic efforts include sitting on the board of Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Dubai Institute of Design & Innovation and 600 & Rising: a non-profit & advocacy group whose mission is to dismantle systemic racism & advocate for Black talent in advertising and public relations. 

Mira is an Egyptian-born Lebanese Palestinian fluent in Arabic, French and English. Her passions are her family, her mindful practices and learning to cook her mamas love-filled food. She sees nature as her greatest teacher. She is proud to be raising three multicultural, multiracial and multilingual daughters.

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Jamila Mayanja is a gender equity champion and the founder of Smart Girls Uganda: a nonprofit that empowers young girls and women with the educational, vocational and practical tools they need to thrive – including access to safe, effective, reusable menstrual pads. 

To date, Smart Girls has reached 500,000 girls with their signature menstrual kits (including 10,000 who have consequently stayed in school), 300 women with skills-based trainings and 50 women with career placement opportunities. The organization’s efforts have also had a ripple effect impact on the families and communities of women and girls across Uganda.

In this episode, Jamila talks to us about the inspiration behind Smart Girls; how it evolved from a self-esteem mentorship program to a “360 degree empowerment” system serving thousands of women and girls across Uganda; the menstrual/gender equity challenges it seeks to address; and incredible stories of women who rose from the ashes through the Smart Girls program to become successful “power queens.”

Highlights:

• Why Jamila’s experience with childhood bullying inspired her to create Smart Girls as a safe space for young girls suffering from low self-esteem
• How widespread period poverty keeps Ugandan girls from staying in school 
• All about Smart Girls’ three core programs:
  • Smart Bags 4 Girls, which helps girls stay in school with reusable menstrual kits and solar-powered study lights
  • Girls With Tools, which trains women in traditionally male-dominated skillsets like carpentry, welding and mechanics 
  • Business Girl Magic, which incubates Girls with Tools graduates and connects them with career opportunities
• How the Smart Bags 4 Girls program is keeping girls in school - while also giving second-chance education and income-generating opportunities to those who never had the opportunity to graduate in their youth
• Stories and numbers that illustrate Smart Girls’ incredible impact 

Connect:

Website: www.smartgirlsfoundation.org

Instagram/Twitter: @smartgirlsug

Facebook: @SmartGirlsUganda

Bio:

Jamila Mayanja has eight years of experience working with for-profit companies and social ventures. While completing her bachelor’s degree at Makeire University Business School in Kampala, she was hired to join the marketing team of one of the top SMS companies in Uganda. She also volunteered with a number of nonprofits including IRI’s Green Light Movement, and became a member of the Generation Change US Chapter. 

In 2012, Jamila started a social venture called Smart Girls Uganda: a nonprofit company that empowers young girls and women through trainings that build self-esteem. In 2017, she innovated The Smart Bags 4 Girls product: a comprehensive menstrual hygiene bag with kits and educational programming designed to help girls in Uganda to stay in school during their menses. Because of her work, she was chosen to be part of the 2015 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Initiative where President Obama recognized her for curbing youth unemployment. Jamila’s Smart Bags 4 Girls idea has also been selected as a winner of the Openideo UNFPA Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Challenge.

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Melissa Berton is the Academy Award-winning producer of PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE., a documentary film about menstrual stigma which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short in 2019. She is an LA-based teacher and writer, as well as the Founder & Executive Director of The Pad Project: a nonprofit (and Days for Girls partner) dedicated to the principle that “a period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education.” 

In this episode, Melissa dives into the story behind PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE., what inspired her to create the film, and how the power of creativity, hard work and Kismet (good fortune) made it all come together. She also talks about the evolution of The Pad Project, its global impact and the role her students have played – and continue to play - in fighting period poverty around the world.

Highlights:

• Melissa’s journey from high school teacher to Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker
• The origins, making and impact of PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE
• How the film’s Oscar success provided enough financial security to seed its corresponding nonprofit initiative, The Pad Project, which now operates in four different countries
• What inspired Melissa’s passion for empowering women and girls
• The role that Melissa’s high school students played in bringing the film and The Pad Project to life, and where they are today

Connect:

Website: www.thepadproject.org

Social media: @thepadproject

Bio:

Melissa Berton is a Los Angeles-based teacher, writer and the Academy Award-winning producer for Best Documentary Short (2019): PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. She is also the Founder & Executive Director of The Pad Project, a non- profit organization dedicated to the principle that “a period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education.” In recognition of her human rights work to promote menstrual equity, Berton received the 2019 Eleanor Roosevelt Global Women’s Rights Award.

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Tara Costello is a UK-based writer, educator and menstrual health advocate with a passion for de-stigmatizing period talk – most recently, in her debut book, Red Moon Gang: An Inclusive Guide to Periods.

In this episode, Tara sits down with us to talk about the importance of inclusivity in period talk (and what that means), the challenges in women’s healthcare from menstruation to menopause, her own reproductive health journey and so much more. We loved this deep and vulnerable conversation and we hope you will too!

Highlights:

• Tara’s personal story and what inspired her to start writing about menstruation
• Why language around menstrual health must include all people with periods (regardless of gender) and all types of menstruation experiences 
• How negative, internalized perceptions of menstruation harms people with periods 
• How Tara’s own journey with PCOS taught her to become her own best health advocate – something that she encourages all menstruators to do
• The challenges of women’s healthcare in the UK
• The implications of underfunded and under-researched women’s health issues at every stage of life
• What’s next for Tara as a writer and advocate

Connect:

Website: www.redmoongang.com

Social media: @redmoongang

Bio:

Tara is a UK-based writer and educator who has been talking frankly about menstruation for more than a decade. Her debut book, Red Moon Gang: An Inclusive Guide To Periods is out now!

Support the show

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Magie Cook is an award-winning mindset coach, international speaker and the CEO and founder of Magie’s Salsa LLC, which she started with just $800 while homeless. 

Her journey from an orphan to a successful business powerhouse/activist is nothing short of inspiring – and shapes her work helping others discover their personal power.

Today, Magie shares her incredible life story with Days for Girls, including a snapshot of her upbringing in an orphanage in rural Mexico, the mental tools she cultivated to maintain hope and resiliency during hard times, the origin story of Magie’s Salsa LLC and her passion for ending human sex trafficking. She even leaves us with wise words about staying curious and open during times of uncertainty. We hope this episode moves you as much as it moved us!

Quote:

“The biggest thing that you can do for yourself is to discover or rediscover your why. Because when you discover your "why," when you know your "why," you have the passion, the sticktoitiveness, the fire to do something amazing. And it doesn't matter what it is. But it's the best way that I can guarantee your happiness. Because when you know your why and your work, you’re walking on purpose, and you're extremely on fire and ecstatic about it, you are happy.”

Highlights:

• How Magie used the power of mindset, hope and perseverence to make it through a challenging childhood and manifest an upwardly-mobile future
• Magie’s journey from an orphan with big dreams, to a collegiate basketball star, to the CEO of her own salsa company
• How she started Magie’s Salsa, LLC with just $800 from a kind stranger while experiencing homelessness – which went on to become a bestselling salsa brand in grocery stores across America
• Her past and ongoing efforts in the fight against human sex trafficking, and how she aims to curb the “generational curse” with compassion and understanding
• The importance of finding your why in life, especially during uncertain times

Connect:

Website: www.magiecook.com

Social media: @magiecook

Bio:

Magie Cook is America’s Success Speaker and The Bootstrapped Coach. She is the CEO & founder of Magie’s Salsa, LLC, a fresh salsa and dips company that she started with $800 while experiencing homelessness, which was later sold to Campbells Soup for $231 million. She is now living her dream by helping entrepreneurs and teams discover their hidden personal power so they can increase their revenue and grow consistently. 

After living a life of suffering in an orphanage for 18 years, Magie created mindset strategies that changed her life. With 30 years of experience, Magie now dedicates her life to helping others unleash their full potential, specializing in mind and business optimization strategies to accelerate true success. Magie is an internationally recognized speaker and expert in the field of business and personal development and has been featured in numerous publications, magazines and television networks such as Fox News, CNN, NBC, Daystar TV, Bloomberg TV’s “The American Dream” and many more. She’s worked with many Fortune 100 and 500 companies, as well as A-listers including professional athletes, influencers and thought leaders.

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Brian Ford is the co-founder of For Purpose, a social impact platform that aims to rewrite the philanthropy paradigm and empower more people to make a positive difference through everyday actions. He is fiercely passionate about making social impact accessible to all - and believes that even the smallest of efforts can have a domino effect in creating massive change.

In this inspiring episode, Brian shares the ways in which For Purpose is disrupting the social impact status quo; quick and easy ways that you can get involved as a listener and Days for Girls supporter; the power of small changes in changing the world; and so much more. Let’s dive in! 

Highlights:

• How Brian’s nonprofit, For Purpose, is transforming the social impact sector into something accessible to all
• The power of an impact-driven lifestyle and how all people can make a difference through daily habits and choices (like the energy you put into your community, the brands you support, etc)
• Brian’s favorite examples of creative impact from the For Purpose network
• How starting small with impact can ultimately create “an incredible compounding force that brings more good into the world.”
• Why Brian is passionate about eliminating the stigma around public acts of social good 
• How you, the listener, can collaborate with For Purpose to shine a light on your impact (it only takes 90 seconds!)
• For Purpose’s business model and plans for the future
• All about Brian’s 2-minute daily podcast, Self-Improvement Daily
• The origin and benefits of Brian’s “do it for the story” approach to life, which he also shares in his TED talk of the same name
• What first inspired Brian to make the world a more equitable place

Connect:

Website: www.forpurpose.com

Engage: bit.ly/dfg-forpurpose

Instagram: @forpurpose

Podcast: Self Improvement Daily

Email: brian@forpurpose.com

Bio:

Brian Ford is the co-founder of For Purpose, a social impact platform that is modernizing what it means to be a philanthropist. For Purpose is a movement to connect with people who share your same values, find new ways to leave this world better than you found it, and get the support you need to make your impact dreams a reality. Brian is also the host of a popular self-improvement daily podcast with two-minute-long episodes that help listeners master self-development skills.

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Please support us at daysforgirls.org

Blanca Ordaz is a ten-year-old actress who is passionate about using her voice and platform make the world a better place. Through her leading role in the new PBS short film Death and Deathability: A Period Piece, Blanca hopes to shine a light on period poverty and shatter the stigma around menstruation.

In this episode, Blanca (and her mother, Cecilia) talk about her experience filming Death and Deathability, how the film turned her into a young advocate for menstrual equality, the importance of normalizing period talk for all people, and the impact she hopes to make as a cause-driven actress. Tune in below!

Highlights:

• Blanca’s experience starring in Death and Deathability: A Period Piece and bringing her character, Ceci, to life
• How the film opened Blanca’s eyes to the issue of period poverty 
• Blanca’s favorite messages from viewers, fans and followers 
• How Ceci’s struggle inspired Blanca’s passion for involving dads (and other men) in the conversation about menstrual health
• The motivation behind Blanca’s bourgeoning acting career and where she gets her impact-driven outlook on life
• Blanca and Cecilia’s thoughts on cultural representation in Hollywood, and why they’re excited to be part of a movement towards greater diversity in film
• What’s next for Blanca’s acting career

Connect:

Watch: Death and Deathability: A Period Piece 

Instagram: @bbllaannxx

Bio:

Blanca Ordaz is a ten-year-old actress who is passionate about using her voice and platform to help others. She stars in Death and Deathability: A Period Piece, a new PBS short film about a young girl experiencing menstruation for the first time.

Blanca wants to raise awareness about period poverty and education equity for girls. She hopes to use her platform to shatter the stigma, keep the conversation going and help people see that periods are a normal thing to talk about. She is pursuing an acting career to tell stories that matter, to make people feel less alone, and to change lives for the better. 

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Please support us at daysforgirls.org

Anita Diamant is a New York Times best-selling novelist, journalist and the author of multiple books on menstrual equity – including Period. End of Sentence., based on the Oscar-winning documentary of the same name. 

In this episode, Anita shares wisdom and stories from her acclaimed books on menstrual equity; dives into her personal journey as a menstrual health author and advocate; unpacks the connection between power, period shame and gender equity; and leaves us with hopeful words about the future of the menstrual movement. Tune in below!

Highlights:

• What inspired Anita to join the fight for menstrual justice 
• The story behind Anita’s partnership with The Pad Project when writing her most recent book, Period. End of Sentence.
• All about Anita’s first menstruation-themed book, The Red Tent, and the movement it inspired
• The relationship between “period talk” and gendered power dynamics
• The prevalence of menstrual stigma and its role in driving gender inequity throughout generations 
• Unique challenges faced by incarcerated menstruators
• Why Anita believes today’s young people have the power, passion and resolve to finally change the menstrual equity paradigm 

Connect:

Website: https://anitadiamant.com

Twitter: @AnitaDiamant

Facebook: Author Anita Diamant

Bio:

Anita Diamant is the author of thirteen books. Period. End of Sentence, is her most recent. Her first novel, New York Times bestseller, The Red Tent, has been published in more than 25 countries, won the 2001 Booksense Book of the Year Award and was adapted into a two-part miniseries by Lifetime TV. 

Anita’s other bestselling novels include The Boston Girl, Day after Night, The Last Days of Dogtown, and Good Harbor. She has written six non-fiction guides to contemporary Jewish life: The Jewish Wedding Now, The Jewish Baby Book, Living a Jewish Life, Choosing a Jewish Life, How to Raise a Jewish Child, and Saying Kaddish. Anita’s book, Pitching My Tent, is drawn from twenty years-worth of newspaper and magazine columns. As an award-winning journalist, her articles and essays have appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, Real Simple, Parenting, Hadassah, Reform Judaism, Boston Magazine and Yankee Magazine. 

Anita is the founding president of Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh, a 21st century reinvention of the ritual bath as a place for exploring ancient traditions and enriching contemporary Jewish life. She grew up in Newark, New Jersey and Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in comparative literature. She also holds a master’s degree in English from Binghamton University.

Support the show

Please support us at daysforgirls.org

Laura Peña is a Dominican-American filmmaker, storyteller and passionate champion of every girl. She is the founder of She is the Universe: a storytelling, mentorship and community building platform that supports girls around the world to stand in their power and pursue their dreams. For the past few years, Laura has traveled across the world interviewing girls about their hopes, dreams, passions and struggles – and sharing their unique stories through film.

In this inspiring episode, Laura talks about her current and upcoming projects with She is the Universe, the impact of her work on women and girls around the globe, her favorite stories from interviews on six continents, and her steadfast belief in the ability of girls to change the world (when given the right tools and support). Let’s dive in!

Highlights:

• What inspired Laura to dedicate her life to empowering girls through She is The Universe
• How Laura’s in-progress video series explores the question of what it means to be a girl today, by spotlighting the stories of 111 teenaged girls across six continents 
• How an interview experience in Columbia prompted She is the Universe to start a scholarship fund that now sponsors education for five girls in the Philippines and Columbia
• How Laura measures impact as a storyteller – and how she’s seen her work affect the confidence and ambition of girls (and women!).
• The role of diversity, equity and inclusion in her projects
• Laura’s efforts to expand the scope of She Is the Universe to include leadership/mentorship programming, community building through girls’ support networks, and more school sponsorships – plus the funding challenges she faces on this journey
• How She Is the Universe has changed Laura’s personal life and is helping her heal her own inner child
• How you, the listener, can get involved with She is the Universe as a supporter, volunteer or by sharing the stories of girls with your network!

Connect:

Website: www.sheistheuniverse.org

Instagram: @sheistheuniverseproject

Youtube: She is the Universe

Bio:

Laura Peña is a Dominican-American filmmaker, creative producer, motion designer, speaker, traveler, proud Latina and supporter of girls. As the founder of She is the Universe, a Global Movement for Girl’s Empowerment, Laura looks to inspire, and offer girls from around the world the support they need to stand in their own stories and to pursue their dreams, through storytelling, mentorship and community. 

For the past few years, Laura has been traveling the world collecting stories of teenage girls on film. They share their dreams and struggles for a video series with stories of girls, told by girls. Laura encourages and supports girls to use their voice and change the world, using their own unique gifts. Originally from the Dominican Republic, she moved to the U.S. to attend Parsons School of Design in New York City in 2005. In 2014 she founded JelloMonsters, a creative Design Lab where she works with leading brands to create motion graphics. Her work has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and books globally. 

Laura is also an international workshop leader and speaker who has shared her story at TEDx and Creative Mornings. She has been a digital nomad for about 6 years. Currently Laura spends most her time in the beach town of Cabarete, Dominican Republic, keeping the nomad lifestyle alive while building her dreams and weathering a global pandemic with patience.

Support the show

Please support us at daysforgirls.org

Rob and Debbie Young are an impact-driven couple changing the world through their leadership efforts with doTERRA and Days for Girls. Rob is a doTERRA co-founder who plays an active role in the company’s global charity initiatives, while Debbie leads DfG’s 30,000-strong Utah Chapter.

In this episode, Rob and Debbie dive into their journey(s) in social impact work; their passion for lifting up women, girls and communities on a global scale; memorable moments from their efforts around the world; and why doTERRA’s unique, sustainable approach to giving back makes them the perfect DfG partner.

Highlights:

• All about doTERRA’s ‘co-impact sourcing’ charity model, which allows them to invest in the wellbeing of communities where they operate 
• How doTERRA is changing the world through co-impact sourcing, their Healing Hands Foundation and more
• How Debbie first became involved with Days for Girls 
• The moment when Debbie first fully realized the difference she was making for women and girls (hint: it happened in a Mayan village in Guatemala) 
• The story behind the doTERRA – Days for Girls partnership and what makes us an ideal fit
• The importance of sustainability in global impact work
• The inspiring changes they’ve seen over time in communities where doTERRA and Days for Girls are active

Connect:

Website: www.doterra.com & doterrahealinghands.com

Bio:

Debbie serves as the Days for Girls Coordinator for Utah, organizing 30,000 local volunteers, as well as coordinating efforts to enact doTERRA Wellness Advocates to distribute Days for Girls kits around the globe. She has personally taught over 3,000 girls in 6 countries and has enjoyed her time working with women to establish various DfG Enterprises while in-country. Her husband, Rob, is one of the co-founders of doTERRA. From the very beginning, Rob helped establish doTERRA as an integrative health and wellness company and the world leader in the global aroma therapy and essential oils market. Rob is often seeking ways to support others in need through doTERRA, his co-impact sourcing initiatives and the doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation.

Support the show

Please support us at daysforgirls.org

Jasmine Burton is a social inclusion and design specialist who is passionate about building a more inclusive world through sanitation innovation. She is the founder and CEO of Wish for WASH, a social impact organization that addresses equity gaps in the WASH sector through human-centered design thinking and research.

In this episode, Jasmine shares her journey as a toilet design specialist striving to improve outcomes for the 4.2 billion people who lack access to safely managed sanitation. Join us as we dive into the challenges of global toilet inequity; exciting innovations in the WASH sector today; and the relationship between sanitation innovation, menstrual health and the empowerment of women and girls. 

Highlights

• What it means to be a social inclusion and design specialist
• How Jasmine utilizes the concept of empathy in an iterative framework to drive innovation, sustainability and impact
• What inspired her to go into toilet innovation at a young age
• The founding story of Wish for Wash, which she started as an undergrad at Georgia Tech to improve global sanitation infrastructure through human-centered design 
• “Flying toilets,” and other hazards prompted by widespread lack of access to safely managed sanitation 
• Notable innovations in the sanitation space today, including:
  • Development of toilet systems that can easily be tailored to different sets of needs 
  • The “circular sanitation economy” turning human waste into a renewable resource
  • The “smart sanitation economy” using wastewater technology as a preventative public health tool
  • How the COVID-19 has impacted Wish for Wash, and what the future holds
• Jasmine’s future endeavors in impact investing and sustainable financing 

Connect

Website: jasminekburton.com | wishforwash.org  | periodfutures.org | toiletboard.org

IG/FB/Twitter: @jasminekburton | @wishforwash | @periodfutures 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminekburton/

Bio

Jasmine (Jaz) is a social inclusion and design specialist with a focus on gender equity, meaningful youth engagement, and innovation in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and global health sectors. She is trained in product design and public health, and is passionate about social justice and human rights. She has led iterative toilet innovation pilots and research across Sub-Saharan Africa with a design thinking lens and in resettled refugee communities as the founder of Wish for WASH, a social impact organization that seeks to bring innovation to sanitation. 

Jasmine has served as the Toilet Accelerator Manager and Innovation Lab Lead at the Toilet Board Coalition, Technical Advisor for the gender equity startup Equilo, on the Board of Directors for Planet Indonesia in order to help lead their WASH and gender strategies, a Design/Communications Associate for Women in Global Health, and a former consultant for gender and women's health research organizations Atethemis and International Planned Parenthood Federation. 

As a 2018-2019 Women Deliver Young Leader, she spoke at the 2019 WD conference about her work and vision for gender equity in the WASH sector. Jasmine identifies as a social impact designer who seeks to utilize design thinking, evidence-based research, and business acumen to build a more inclusive world. 

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Please support us at daysforgirls.org

Inga Winkler a university professor and researcher who specializes in the intersection of menstruation, gender justice and human rights. She is a co-contributor to the Palgrave Handbook on Menstruation Studies: a field-defining resource that examines

In this episode, Inga walks us through concepts from the Palgrave Handbook; unpacks the relationship between power dynamics and menstruation; shares menstrual health policy insights from around the world; dives into the importance of intersectionality in conversations about menstruation; and so much more.

Highlights:

• All about the Palgrave Handbook on Critical Menstruation Studies, including its purpose and Inga’s personal contribution to the literature
• The impact of menstrual inequity on human rights and power relations (it’s “about so much more than just the just the biological process, just the bleeding”)
• What Inga means by, “menstruation unites the personal and the political, the intimate and the public, and the physiological and the socio-cultural”
• Why we must prioritize the intersectional, context-dependent, lived experiences of menstruators when talking about menstruation
• Why bringing the personal/intimate elements of menstruation into the public/political space is key to shattering the stigma
• How the singular narrative of menstrual oppression can erase the agency of women and girls in cultures around the world – and why it’s essential to consider sociocultural/religious nuance in conversations about menstruation 
• How menstrual policies and media representation have evolved over the past decade
• Insights from analysis of menstrual policies in Kenya, India, Senegal and the U.S.
• Why policymakers need to transcend their narrow scope of understanding about menstrual health education (and their own ingrained stigma) to truly eliminate menstrual inequity for all
• What the Palgrave Handbook can offer you, the listener

Connect:

Handbook: PDF link here

Website: www.ingawinkler.com

Twitter: @Inga_Winkler

Bio:

Inga Winkler is an Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law at the Central European University in Vienna, Austria. She is also the director of The Working Group on Menstrual Health and Gender Justice at Columbia University. Her research focuses on socioeconomic rights and gender justice with a particular interest in the intersection of menstruation, culture and representation. Her research builds on her extensive experience in the UN system, and she seeks to engage with policymakers on menstrual health. In today's episode, we'll be talking about her contributions to the Palgrave Handbook on Critical Menstruation Studies.

Support the show

Please support us at daysforgirls.org