TAKING CARE OF MENSTRUAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS

The problem is characterized by the denial of menstrual hygiene to girls studying in public schools in Brazil. Since 2014, the UN has discussed and recommended that this is a right that needs to be treated as a matter of public health and human rights. According to surveys, it is estimated that an expense of around U$$ 6.00 / menstrual cycle, and as the vast majority of these girls studying in public schools live on an average of U$$ 49.00 / month, menstruating For them it is very expensive. This is because when you don't even have money to buy food and you find around 19 million people going hungry, it really is almost impossible to take care of menstrual hygiene. Our project aims to serve 250 girls from 5 public schools for a period of 1 year, providing, in addition to menstrual pads, personal hygiene items such as soap, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, with the girls all coming from 5 municipalities in the state of Maranhão, here in the northeast. from Brazil. Let's implement this project to show our authorities that menstruation is normal for the vast majority of women with a normal uterus, the problem is the condition of girls studying in public schools who are unable to buy their menstrual pad every month of the year. . Making it very clear that carrying out an action of this nature is not providing any favor to these girls, but rather providing them with a right that should already be denied, we need to always develop this policy so that these girls who will soon be women do not go through violence and inequality that they face today, but that we can guarantee them as little dignity as possible. However, with the execution of the project we will be strengthening an inclusion process considered elementary for a population with this characteristic, strengthening gender equality which together, comes down to a highly relevant social dimension, even more so when it comes to a region with this one here in the northeast of Brazil. Furthermore, the lack of menstrual pads directly affects the school performance of these girls and, as a consequence, restricts the development of their potential in adult life. The project's scaling capacity is very broad, the implementation methodology is extremely simple and can be implemented anywhere on the planet.

Provide assistance to girls studying in public schools due to the denial of a right that needs to be treated as a matter of public health and human rights. Menstruation is a perfectly natural condition that should be taken more seriously by public authorities and health policies. When we don't allow a girl to go through this period properly, we are violating her dignity. It is urgent to discuss ways to guarantee menstrual health, with the construction of effective public policies, with free distribution of sanitary pads, with comprehensive education so that girls also know their bodies and what happens to them during the menstrual cycle. This is the solution we present, serving 250 girls from 5 public schools from 5 municipalities in the State of Maranhão, for a period of 1 year, providing, in addition to menstrual pads, personal hygiene items such as soap, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste. The technology is very simple, we acquire the products and deliver the girls to their respective schools every month under the supervision of the management group of each beneficiary school. As for the effect, we have no doubts about the improvements to be provided by the project, improvements in the girls' health conditions, such as less headaches and improved school performance, even better grades during the evaluation process (tests).

The solution is aimed at girls studying in public schools, the vast majority of whom survive in a state of high social vulnerability, without access to menstrual health care. This occurs on a large scale, as Brazilian girls face this problem, given that their great vulnerability is evident, involving other basic services essential to guarantee menstrual dignity: 900 thousand do not have access to running water in their homes and 6, 5 million live in homes without connection to the sewage network. The phenomenon is affected by other variables that involve racial, social and income inequality. With the advent of the supply not only of menstrual pads, but also of personal hygiene items such as soap, deodorant, toothpaste and even soap to wash your clothes, we saw it as the basics to be done so that no one is left behind”, notes Difficulty accessing services and menstrual poverty can be factors of stigma and discrimination, often leading to school dropout. “Many girls still suffer from stigma related to menstruation, which has a huge impact on their self-esteem for the rest of their lives. In other words, there is no way to say how much the project's support for them and their respective schools will affect their lives this year.

We claim that in the last 5 years what the organization has done most is: Services for Children on the Spectrum and other neurodivergent people who present an atypical neurocognitive condition: 30 Children / Week, 120 / month and 1,440 / year: Services for Young People and Adolescents offering training courses for starting work, employment and income; 50 participants / month / 600 / year: Assistance to atypical families with reception: 50 participants / month / 600 / year and projects for the production of healthy food are still in the implementation phase, the initial goal is to cover 250 families of women farmers / year. Given this retrospective, which represents the most crystal clear of truths, we consider our team to be very ready to develop/implement the project TAKING CARE OF MENSTRUAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS, directly covering 250 girls in their respective schools. In these 5 years of good services provided to the community not only in the Organization's headquarters municipality, but also in the 15 surrounding municipalities, we have been accredited with this population to carry out any call as long as we can meet the conditions for it. Our Project Coordinator is a professional who, as a rural extensionist, has in-depth knowledge of our entire rural environment, these are factors that facilitate our public mobilization/selection process when necessary to develop any project. For the project TAKING CARE OF MENSTRUAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS, we do not see any difficulties regarding the school selection process, much less regarding the issue of scheduling for the implementation of the activity, as the methodology for delivering the Kit containing menstrual pads, personal hygiene items such as soap, toothbrush deodorant and toothpaste, will occur in a quick period of time and in total accordance with the school direction without compromising the school calendar and activities.

We understand that the proposal has the character of innovation because the problem is chronic and very old. Therefore, we consider it essential that girls have access to correct information on the subject, in addition to decent hygiene conditions, and that the discussion is open in society to drive improvements as recommended by the bodies that deal with this policy around the world, such as the UNICEF, in addition to a survey by researcher Caroline Moraes, the research evaluated access to water, sanitation and hygiene (known as Wash, its acronym in English), essential items for guaranteeing rights during the menstrual period. Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) were used - through the National Health Survey (PNS), the National School Health Survey (PeNSE) and the Family Budget Survey (POF), covering a total of 15 .5 million Brazilian girls. What we are proving is the extreme need for the discussion to take place openly for society, only from there, can we actually socialize the girls themselves with a public policy problem that is not theirs, but rather the authorities, the bodies that take care of the policy public policy related to menstrual poverty, from technicians/planning. Developing work for a period of 1 year, providing formidable support to these girls, but also leading to the provision of information, we consider it to be a high level of innovation for the proposal presented here

The first impact goal is to benefit these 250 girls in 5 schools in 5 different municipalities in the state of Maranhão. With the data, including photographic reports of the actions carried out in these 5 municipalities over a period of 1 year, we are sure that we will have sufficient instruments/information both to correct possible mistakes in this first project, and at the same time to be able to improve new proposals and so on. be able to scale on a larger scale for the next 5 years. We have no doubt about this being a transformational impact on these girls' lives, but let's look at the factors that will be caused: Improvement of their hygiene conditions; Increased attendance in the classroom, Improved health conditions; Advancement in knowledge of their (girls) rights regarding public policy to combat menstrual poverty; Capacity to disseminate the policy to combat menstrual poverty in order to assist the work that will be carried out over 1 year. With regard to the SDGs/UN, the proposal is also aligned, as at no time does the phase/stage contribute in a negative way to favoring the climatic factors that affect environmental preservation in its entire context, on the contrary, we will use the girls' voice to draw attention to the nature of preservation around their respective schools. We also list below other impacts expected from the project action, such as:
a) Bearing in mind that menstrual poverty is an economic problem, we hope in this year of work to solve this problem by supplying both the Menstrual Absorbent Kit and other personal hygiene products to 250 girls from 5 public schools across the country. be properly selected;
b) With the use of lectures in the beneficiary schools, it can contribute to improving the health conditions of the girls involved in the action, as menstrual poverty ends up encompassing the lack of information regarding menstrual health and the deficient knowledge about the menstrual cycle and personal level, which can lead to serious health problems;
c) Effectively correct the damage caused by menstrual poverty that is inserted in the context of inequality and rights, as it involves all mechanisms (social, economic, infrastructural and educational), making it clear that it does not happen just for an economic issue such as many come to speak;
d) Collaborate with the families of the girls to be beneficiaries, who, as we have already said, are mostly low-income, in fact unable to purchase menstrual pads due to the low family budget;
e) A strong contribution to the fight against school dropout, since with the guarantee of better comfort during their menstrual period, girls improve their attendance rates in classrooms;
f) Raising the self-esteem of the entire community would benefit, as work of this magnitude lasting 1 year, we have no doubt that it will serve as motivation not only for those directly benefiting, but also with an effect on the surrounding public

It can be seen that the impact not only of an action carried out by our Organization, but of Social Organizations in civil society, is great, it is something of extreme importance, the care, dedication and attention with the creation of solutions that can contemplate always the majority, which is without a doubt a great offer of gains for this public, which in the case of our project are girls in public schools who face the problem of menstrual poverty. How will work change their lives? One way to know that the work is actually being relevant to these girls, their families and the community, is when the evolution of the procedures becomes clear and it is clear that the Organization cannot leave aside the focus on the community (its target audience). ), to which it is directly linked, it is necessary to integrate with this community, to truly be part of it, to the point that everyone feels attracted to the work that is being proposed/developed by the Organization, which in this case will be the supply of Absorbent menstrual period with personal hygiene materials, this is a sign that something is good for them (this is change). However, it is up to us to know how this is measured, or should be measured: Obviously, each activity developed requires a metric to evaluate the process, which can range from monitoring to measure the degree of satisfaction of the beneficiary girls and their families, to comparative numbers with before and after the action taken. As our actions are different, we also apply different metrics for our results evaluations, namely: For the Caring for Menstrual Health in Schools Project, in addition to the notes made by the management team of each school, with regard to the entire delivery process of Kits with menstrual pads and personal hygiene materials, observe how much of their health conditions improve, attendance percentages in the classroom and also the girls' performance in the evaluation process (proves improvements in the grades acquired). In a general context, with the actions of the Caring for Menstrual Health in Schools project, we hope to achieve results as an impact process such as:

a) Impact on a strong problem of social exclusion that exists in our area of activity, exclusion that is fully accentuated in the case of girls who study in public schools in our State of Maranhão, due to the conditions of belonging to very low-income families, they end up being made invisible by society, public authorities and in some cases even by families themselves due to the fact that they do not know the means to face the exclusion process, as well as the conditions that do not allow better treatment for their daughters and/or wards:
b) Another scope/impact is that young people and adolescents who have experienced an action of this nature can move towards equal opportunities in the job market and social life, thus being able to live and sleep the sleep of the righteous:

Our team is made up as follows
Full-time employee 4
Part-time employee 3
Volunteers (experts) 8
Service providers we only call upon need and conditions for payment

To be honest, we only started working on this project in 2023, due to everything that happened in Brazil in the last 4 years and in direct contact with this public, it was possible to observe this extreme need for girls who study in schools public. What we are doing now is promoting some improvements to adapt to possible search for subsidies

The organization has a very positive history regarding the application of diversity in its actions, let's just mention what has already been described previously: In our work team, Women are the absolute majority, 70% of the managers are Women, as beneficiaries of the project here in question are 250 girls aged 9 to 15 years old Women, so it is a proven statement that the organization works well on the aspect of diversity in its actions. Just to confirm, our team has: 2 Social Workers, 1 Teacher / Pedagogue, 1 Psychiatrist, 2 Administrative Assistants, all Women, in addition to the President, who is a Woman. In our other actions such as care for Children on the Spectrum and other neurodivergent people who present an atypical neurocognitive condition: 30 Children / Week, 120 / month and 1,440 / year, this is an action with the effective presence of both genders, but even in this case the presence of Children and Women is much greater. To serve Young People and Adolescents by offering training courses for starting work, employment and income; 50 participants / month / 600 / year, once again participation with the majority of women is guaranteed. Remembering that sometimes you don't even need to seek balance in the participation of genders, as Women already appear in the majority naturally, they are in fact the majority. To serve atypical families with foster care: 50 participants / month / 600 / year, in this age group Women also present a large majority. Emphasizing that for the Caring for Menstrual Health in Schools project, the participation of both genders is not included as it is a very specific policy for males, but this does not mean that the Organization works wrongly on gender equality. Therefore, we are stating that we are very aware that our performance is going well in terms of equity participation and the inclusion process in our work/actions in general.

The Tassio Rocha Institute is a non-profit philanthropic entity with the social function of promoting care services in the area of disability and pervasive developmental disorder and high abilities, other comorbidities, with autism as its main focus. Promote assistance in the area of Social Assistance by strengthening people and families in a state of vulnerability, such as drug addicts and their families, actions to combat poverty. The Organization also works with young people and adolescents, offering training courses for starting work, employment and income, providing support to atypical families with support offering comfort with massages for relaxation, conversations and guidance on how to cope with everyday life. Implementation of productive projects based on the production of healthy foods with women family farmers as the target audience. We have a multidisciplinary workforce that provides care to Children on the Spectrum and other neurodivergent individuals who present an atypical neurocognitive disorder with professionals such as: Speech Therapy, Physiotherapy, Psychiatry, Social Assistance, Nursing, Psychology, Pedagogy, Toyologist, Lawyer and Agricultural Scientist . We understand that we add value to the public we work with when we realize that our actions constitute improvements to their well-being and that they demonstrate that this is in fact constituting certain gains in their lives, this is the power of aggregation in the face of community with which you work. These gains, this stage of feeling good for your well-being, we offer in an attentive manner with the promptness and humanistic performance that we must be in the condition of good professionals for which we are prepared. What leads them to accept/need these actions are the most distinct factors as mentioned: Government negligence due to the non-application of public policies relevant to this public (more humble); Lack of knowledge of the cause to the point of being able to fight more effectively for their rights; Recognition in accepting someone who arrives with a proposal that they see is appropriate, has origin and provenance; And yet, something that cannot be avoided is need, this is always a factor to be taken into consideration, the person in need of certain actions, products and/or services ends up accepting what is offered to them.

This is an issue that we cannot escape from, as we believe that it is not a particular problem for one or two organizations, but rather an almost generalized one, the vast majority face this problem of financial sustainability. We firmly believe that we will raise resources for our activities because we will continue trying to chase, fight, seek, plead whenever opportunities allow. We know it is not a simple task, but we will not lose by omission, we will maintain focus, apply corrections where we need to apply, continue the training processes as we are doing and so on, only then will we be able to achieve the objectives regarding our process of attracting subsidies. We work hard to be able to present a more comfortable cash flow in the long term in relation to everything we are currently facing. Apart from this entire process of participating in challenges, calls, notices and/or others, we will continue to search for our partnerships at national, state and municipal levels right here alongside our local partnerships. If we were to present a summary, we are saying that we will remain firm in seeking the resources we need to develop our work with the population we work with, with our projects already somewhat well defined.