Recently, 2 representatives from GEP had contacted 2 girls over at UWC Mahindra College, India regarding the idea of a possible connection between the two colleges. Having the same goals in mind and striving to achieve a similar outcome, these students were able to have a beneficial discussion that could lead GEP to its next step for the upcoming new school term.
Amavasya is a group of six students in Mahindra College, India, that works within their local communities with two villages that have a total of 300 women. These students have been working, with the help of their mentor Mandu from ‘The Cup Effect’. With the work they’ve been able to produce, the students have taken part in a competition started by the Aurora Foundation to compete for the grand prize of $4,000. If they won the competition and gained the money, it would be very valuable as they would put the money in place to fund menstrual cups and reusable sanitary pads. The group sources their products from ‘Ruby Cup’, with their product being ten euros a piece. Over time, the group of six students have been raising awareness about what they’re doing and it’s been successful as half of the women in their campus are using the products from either ‘Ruby Cup’ or ‘Silky Cup’, a more local brand which is priced at four euros a piece that isn’t as of good quality. The group is also focusing on other topics that might spring under the branch of education, an example would be, education about gender, sexuality, female anatomy and religion. When teaching the women in their community, they have the responsibility of designing the educational curriculum and have the help of 11 women in the local community who assist with distributing the menstrual cups and conduct the educational courses.
Amavasya has been considering of rebuilding their connection with their school NGO, which may help turn them into an NGO as well, however, the current students participating in the group are 11th graders and the problem of that would be it could only withstand as a one year project due to the students graduating afterward. The consensus of this would be that, they think it would be a great idea to set up a relationship with GEP, as we can help that to fund for the kits and raise awareness in our general community of about the sustainability of menstrual cups for our students, teachers, and parents. Overall, as a group, we’ve also been discussing the idea of bridging our service with others and to see what path would be the most efficient and worthwhile.
