“Throughout the entire period, I felt the subdivided vibe in Yunnan. Although the roads are exquisitely constructed, the mountains are high and barren, there are very few people.” Zhutuan expressed her sentiments for Yunnan in this manner.

Apart from the sparseness of the population, there was another factor contributing to the feeling of division —— if you look deeper into the discreet areas in the school, you will realize that there are still lots of unmet and unseen needs.

“Their schools are beautifully decorated, especially under the lovely sky of Yunnan. It’s a gorgeous landscape. However, there are still significant challenges in places where people don’t notice, like bathrooms and toilets.”

Although these issues may be widespread, the girls’ situation here is more typical. On the one hand, girls sometimes can’t wash because of the insufficient number of bathrooms. On the other hand, many girls feel awkward and uncomfortable using the toilets because they lack bins or doors.

“There is often a queue for the girls’ toilets. Because there are no doors, the girls have to change their sanitary napkins in front of everyone, which would be embarrassing for them. On top of that, there are no bins in the toilets, so where to throw the sanitary napkins also becomes a tricky problem.”

Many girls shared their struggles in daily life with volunteers, such as their inability to afford sanitary napkins and brown sugar used as an effective remedy to relieve menstrual cramps.

“Most of the students never buy brown sugar, not because it’s inconvenient to buy, but because they can not afford it. ” “A girl told us that once, when their parents were not at home, and she found that the sanitary napkins and toilet paper ran out. Then she cut off a piece of her old sweater and used it as a ‘sanitary napkin’ for the whole afternoon.” Stacey said she was astonished and heartbroken when she heard this.

Another girl, who was short of sanitary napkins, folded the rough draft paper and used them as a ‘sanitary napkin’. She felt stuffy throughout the day because of its non-breathable material, and she couldn’t leave her seat for fear of period leakage.

Under huge economic pressure, many girls choose to endure the period pains of their own. A girl explained her menstrual cramps to the volunteer in the following way: “I don’t know how to say that… It feels like there’s a rock in my stomach. It hurts like hell.” “If I feel hurt, I will drink boiled water and have a rest. I won’t go to the hospital because it’s costly. I believe I can endure.”

Menstruation is a cycle in women’s physiology that affects and regulates the female body. It has a special meaning as a physiological characteristic unique to women.

However, this normal female physiological phenomenon is often subject to other people’s gaze, forming a shackle that is difficult to break: “period shame”.

If we position ourselves in the timeline of history, we can see that “period shame” is a deep-rooted cultural shackle. For a long time, words such as “menstruation” and “vagina” were seen as symbols of “uncleanliness” and “filth”. This stigmatization led to menstruation becoming an unspeakable grievance for women.

This taboo against menstruation can lead to more serious discrimination. That is, women are seen as dirty and unclean. Not only that but women’s own attitudes towards menstruation are affected by the repetition and exaggeration over time. Chizuko Ueno writes in Misogyny: “Both men and women can contract misogyny, which manifests itself in men as ‘female contempt’ and in women as ‘self-loathing’”.

“A girl has experienced verbal violence and gender discrimination because of menstruation. She told her teacher that she wanted to go to the toilet. Then the boys in her class teased her, saying: ‘You are going to put your band-aid’. The girl told me that these boys often called sanitary napkins ‘large-size band-aids’.” Moreover, her family members have frequently called the girls’ menstrual cramps “pretentious”.

Period poverty is a deep-rooted shackle, and NGOs can only temporarily assist these girls. However, support from their peers might be a priceless asset they will hold onto forever, giving them more courage to face dangerous situation.

“These girls always share the sanitary napkins. They still give them sanitary napkins even though some girls are not familiar with them. I asked why they did this, and they told me that they think they are the one, and there is no discrimination among them.”

They told me there were so many heartwarming moments like this. Therefore, they often felt that they were healing each other. Instead of being donors and beneficiaries at opposite ends of the spectrum, they became collaborators in a relay race —— they help girls, girls help other girls.

Since 2020, StandByHer has donated sanitary napkins to 63,700 girls. In Shanghai’s Lujiazui Financial District, their “Sanitary Napkin Mutual Aid Box” Project received its formal debut, beginning a new chapter connecting society and campuses. Stacey said: “I still remember that when we first started the Fight Period Poverty Project, the word period was labeled as an offensive word, and we were not allowed to launch our project. But today, we are pleased to see that period poverty has become a widely discussed problem. ”

At the ending of interview, Zhutuan and Stacey shared their vision with me.

“We want to be a trailblazer, but we also want to connect with more girls so that we can make this project a long-lasting relay. Although the goal of ‘making sanitary napkins accessible to all girls’ may seem idealistic, we will continue to work for it. Because we are all women, we want these girls to know that no matter how the world treats them, there are always lot of sisters standing by their side. We hope that every girl can achieve freedom and enjoy their best life. I want to tell them they deserve it, and We Love U Ladies.“

Photo Sources: StandByHer