Menstrual Hygiene Management- Educating the girls’ students

Menstrual Hygiene Management- Educating the Girls’ students

In the next stage of sensitizing students in the 26 Government Schools under the preview of our WASH project aegis UNICEF, where have now started sensitizing the senior girls from classes 6th to 10th on the more sensitive and crucial aspects of Menstrual Hygiene Management.

In the girls’ sessions apart from detailed explanation of the menstrual cycle, related process, facts, myths, taboos, the girls are primarily educated on the ways to take care of themselves during the menstruation:

* To clarify your doubts, seek guidance from your mother or speak to some elderly women.

* To control the bleeding and avoid staining of clothes, girls should either use sanitary napkins or properly washed and sun dried cloth.

* The girls are explained that it is normal to have irregular periods in the start as it takes time for body to adapt to new hormones. Irregular periods for a new beginner varying from 22 to 34 days are normal.  

* Colour of blood is usually bright red in beginning and then slowly turns into brown.

* Not having periods even uptil the age of 15 to 16 is normal but beyond this age, the girls must visit the doctor.

* The white discharge from the vagina is a natural process of cleaning of body as long as it does not smell a lot and if it is not green (like balgam). 

* Feel tired or pain during the periods is normal. 

* Food or diet to be taken during periods: important to have iron rich foods like banana, apple, spinach, black chana, etc., have lots of water especially during periods.

* To have relief from pain: drink hot milk or ginger tea, use hot water bottle on lower abdomen and lower back, massage your lower abdomen or lower back with pain relieving oil.

* Wearing fresh underwear is a must for females.

* If anyone feels like eating mitti, chalk or scrape wall- it means you are deficient in iron. Consume the iron tablets which are made available in schools.

Educating the girls that menstrual hygiene is vital to their health makes them more confident, aware and maintain hygiene for safe and healthy life.

We hope that these sessions will work as a trigger for better, stronger development of girls. 

Menstrual Hygiene Management- Sensitizing boys’ students to this essential subject

Menstrual Hygiene Management-  Sensitizing boys’ students

 to this essential subject

In the next stage of sensitizing students in the 26 Government Schools under the preview of our WASH project aegis UNICEF guidelines, where have now started sensitizing the senior boys of classes 6th to 10th with the process of the menstrual cycle as the reality of every girl.

The task is definitely more challenging for how to introduce to the boys with a topic, which is till date even not openly discussed even with the girls. 

At the very initial stage itself to grasp the maximum attention of the boys, they are segregated into different groups and each group is then given the task to jot down few points on the importance of education for girls. 

Based upon the inputs received from each group of boys, we are indirectly able to instigate amongst the boys the feelings of mutual respect along with importance of girls and most importantly importance of girls’ education for a progressive society. 

After the above, the boys are made more inquisitive to know and understand the reality of human birth and their coming into this world.

How naturally and biologically the individual bodies of boys and girls start preparing themselves by undergoing some very essential changes and developmental processes to actually develop as a full fledged man or woman respectively.

Inclusive of these above mentioned developmental processes, the process of menstrual cycle of girls is explained to the boys, so as to promote complete knowledge and better understanding. 

After the detailed explanation of all the biological developmental processes happening in the bodies of boys and girls independently, the boys seem to be more confident, respectful and sensitive towards the special needs of both genders and more willing to be supportive and well behaved with the girls.

To further these feelings of mutual respect and care towards the girls, the boys are narrated the real life story of Mr. Arunachalam Murugnanatham, who brought about the sanitary pad revolution and mastered the indigenous technique of producing low-cost sanitary pads.

We hope that with the guidance and new learnings for these students, the boys will now realize all the more the importance of acknowledging, respecting and understanding girls as their fellow gender.

WASH in School- An initiative to promote Clean Water Consumption

WASH- An initiative to promote Clean Water Consumption

When we peer into a glass of drinking water, we are looking at a drop of human history—the water we consume today has been around in one form or another for thousands of years, continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our glasses.

But today, ‘drinking water’ and ‘consuming clean and safe’ water are two different realities. In continuation to which, the major target to numerous acute water borne diseases are our children who lose a major part of their childhood in struggling to retain a good health. Furthermore, this leads to absenteeism from schools and loss of their studies.

Addressing to the above situation, under the guidelines of UNICEF, a program known as WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in School (WINS) has been initiated by The Transformers Value Creators in association  with Rotary Club, Chandigarh and adopted 26 Government schools in and around Chandigarh Tricity where around 40,000 students and 8000 Teachers are being sensitized and educated with clean water consumption, improved sanitation and hygiene education that encourages the development of healthy behavior in students for life.

We are emphasizing on clean water consumption by making students understand the importance of clean drinking water and saving it from any adulteration.

Through this WASH initiative we are further explaining students ways through which they can contribute to save gallons of water daily and deal with the water scarcity.

* We can definitely turn off all the taps tightly after each usage whether in schools, home or public place.

* Taking responsibility to ensure repair and maintenance of leaking tapes or pipes is undertaken by their elders.

* Preventing any water cooler contamination or vandalism. Also washing our hands at interval times and preventing water pollution with dirty hands.

* Keeping water tanks clean, covered and checking them on regular basis. 

* Rain water harvesting is one of the most effective and suitable techniques around areas suffering from clean water shortage. Harvesting rain water can be used for purposes like watering plant, washing clothes, in toilet flushes etc.

* Planting trees eventually helps our environment to produce more rainfall.

We are also sharing insight about the nationwide campaign, “Rally for Rivers” focusing on saving our depleting rivers by practicing methods through which we can ensure a safe future of our water bodies.

Thus, practicing sensitive & collaborative efforts towards conserving natural water to ensure its availability for future generations can only be fulfilled with involvement and engagement of children.

WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) in Schools - An Initiative by Transformers team

WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) in Schools

- An Initiative by Transformers team

We all believe that Children have a right to basic facilities such as school toilets, safe drinking water, clean surroundings and basic information on hygiene. 

But the current scenario seems to be entirely different from the ground reality. Poor sanitation, water scarcity, inferior water quality and inappropriate hygiene behavior are disastrous for young children and are a major cause of high mortality rate in them. Every child friendly school requires an appropriate initiative that keeps the school environment clean and free of foul smells and inhibits the transmission of harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites.

To cater to the above situation, under the guidelines of UNICEF, a program known as WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) in School (WINS) initiated in Schools.

To support the effective implementation of this program The Transformers Value Creators in association  with Rotary Club of Chandigarh has adopted 26 Government schools in and around Chandigarh Tricity where around 40,000 students and 8000 Teachers will be sensitized and educated, with improved sanitation facilities and hygiene education that encourages the development of healthy behavior in students for life.

Through this program the focus is to emphasize the importance and value of clean, safe drinking water, sanitation and personal hygiene in school students which would create an enabling environment securing children’s dignity, safety, health. 

Further, which also enables maximum class attendance and participation in schools rather than facing absenteeism and loss of their curriculum.

It is a 6 months intensive ongoing program, in which exclusive class wise sessions of students starting from Nursery to 10^th , along with respective School Teachers Staff sessions are being conducted by the team Transformers and sensitizing the students about the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH Initiative),

With this effective WASH in Schools programme we have aimed to:

Personal Hygiene and the need to keep our bodies clean, so as to keep ourselves and healthy and disease free so as to safeguard their childhood and perform better in academics.

Effective Toilet Usage Practices and how to keep oneself and the toilets clean even after usage.

Sensitization about the need to wash our hands after regular intervals and specially make the students aware of the events and situations after which hand washing becomes all the more essential.

Develop the personal hygiene behavior and continue better hygiene practices in future. Eight Effective Steps to clean and sanitized hand washing were not only explained but also demonstrated practically, involving the participation of all the students.

How to prevent vandalism and its ill effects which results in damaging of school infrastructure, specially toilets and drinking water areas.

Need of students to take up responsibility and contribute towards the maintenance and upkeep of the toilet and sanitation facilities provided at school.

Create awareness about acute shortage of water resources and the need to take up special initiatives for protection of water resources and to avoid any wastage of water, so as to ensure regular and consistent supply of water. 

One such nationwide campaign, " Rally For Rivers" is also being promoted to ensure maximum involvement of students.

Need of clean water consumption and not to pollute or adulterate water, especially with dirty hands.

Enabling of reverse learning process, where students go back home and educate their parents to influence hygiene practices at home, among family members and in the wider community.

For effective delivery of the sessions, depending upon the age group of students i.e Nursery to 10^th practical hand washing demonstrations techniques are used along with props like Dolls for better understanding of the younger children and to let them relate with the concepts more effectively. 

The sessions are further enhanced and made more interesting through interactive and pictorial explanation with the help of banners, posters and creative attire. The children are found to be very excited and engaged to learn the concepts of WASH wholeheartedly. Question & answer methodology in also involved to judge the level of involvement and understanding of the students as direct feedback.

Under this WINS program exclusive Teachers’ session for morning & evening shift schools are conducted separately to update them about WINS project so as to seek their maximum cooperation and willingness to support the WINS project. 

To strengthen the practical possibility of the project, videos & presentations are used to further make it more clear and easy to understand.  The teachers are being updated with the concept and content for the sensitization sessions planned for the students so as to eliminate any missing links in the information .The teachers are also given an ideas about formulation of students' committees along with necessary checklists to take up the responsibility of maximum toilet cleanliness and maintenance in their respective school.

We hope that the efforts involved in this project turn out to be successful with the lifelong practice of the concepts learned by the students and community.

Impact of Experiential & Energizing Learning

Impact of Experiential & Energizing Learning

Experiential learning is an active process, one “through which individuals construct knowledge, acquire skills and enhance values from direct experience”. 

The primary objective of experiential learning is to instill within the individual learner a sense of ownership and responsibility.

Thereby, one way for learners to become more actively involved is for educators to design the module that requires student participation.

This begins by invoking enthusiasm amongst the teachers which would promote students' intrinsic motivation to learn.

In an experiential learning environment, students work in teams to perform a real task and understand the output of their efforts. The exercise raises a number of provocative issues regarding many concepts and specifically occurs in a spirited, enlivened class session.

The 4-Stage Experiential Learning Cycle imparts-

* Experiencing: A structured experience in which individuals participate in a specific activity so as to have involvement of personal and cognitive aspects of a person. The same fact has been emphasized in the media time and again. 

* Reflecting:  A need exists to integrate the new experience with past experiences through the process of reflection which is instilled with self-initiation: a sense of discovery which comes from within.

* Generalizing: this stage calls for individuals to search for patterns based on the specific experience to explore whether emotions, thoughts, behaviors or observations occur with some regularity. This understanding is then applied to other situations.

* Applying: In this stage, individuals are encouraged to plan ways to put into action the generalizations (patterns) that they identified in the previous stage. This directly activates the “learners’ self-concept,” calling upon the learner to become more self-directed in the learning process. 

Throughout the experiential learning process, learners are actively engaged in posing questions, investigating, experimenting, being curious, solving problems, assuming responsibility, being creative and constructing meaning. 

Learners are engaged intellectually, emotionally, socially, and/or physically. This involvement helps produce a perception that the learning task is authentic.

Thus, when experiential learning takes place, its meaning to the learner becomes incorporated into the total experience which “makes a difference in the behavior, the attitudes, perhaps even the personality of the learner.”

Experiential learning holds the ability to heighten the sense of democracy by welcoming participation as a construct for evoking the reality of a community of practice.