Green Lady Cambodia - Digital tools for SRH

The stigmatization and lack of holistic care surrounding menstrual, sexual and reproductive health and rights. HIV case that some of us thought were gone, is actually increasing from 3000 to 5000 cases just within a few years which means at least 1 case a day in Chouk Sar Clinic, Cambodia alone. Those are vulnerable communities and as young as 18-24 years old. There are many who still struggle to even get their blood tested because of the shame, voice their irregular periods to their guardians or parents because they think it brings trouble and the idea of going to the clinic is pretty scary like something is wrong with their body, and obstacles such as service provider's attitude, making time to financing the treatment. There are millions of girls in public schools who need access to basic necessities like sanitary pads that are free from chemicals, irregular periods check-ups in public schools, proper infrastructure, and clean water. From the context of out-of-school youth, girls and women with disabilities are the most pressing concern for menstruation issues. 

Access to education through peer educators, materials offline and online, and basic digital skills with Raspberry Pi (https://www.raspberrypi.com/). Practical menstruation management with the introduction to safer menstrual periods-product choices with consumer awareness. We will select to train the girls and the boys in public schools with the materials that we already developed online and offline and focus on training them to share the knowledge with their peers and encourage their creativity to deliver them in their own way. With South East Asia statistics, 68% of the students report that they learned more from their peers. Along with the education, we bring in choices of products such as washable pads, how to sew them, and other options that are available, in the meantime, we collaborate with other NGO partners to develop biodegradable sanitary pads option even it may need a long research process we see the needs of the option to be available, local and cheap for the girls needs and also for the school to equipped according to the national policy. 

We intend to better influence the educational system and policy-related menstrual care by suggesting what needs to exist and be done for the students who spend most of their time in school. For girls, it is the knowledge of growth, menstrual health, and access to enough periods-product options that suit them. For the boys, it is the knowledge of their own growth and sexual and reproductive health. For women, it is the consumer's awareness and responsible consumption for their health and environment once they decide to purchase their periods-product option. To the NGOs, Public Schools, and the government, it is a more effective and efficient approach to sexual and reproductive health and rights policy for the students overall. Sexual and reproductive health education should have been put in place, yet delayed because of COVID-19. After COVID, still underfunded with another 2 years' delay, up until now, the national textbooks are not readily published all over the country. Lack of educators has been reported as one of the big concerns all over Southeast Asia, and the new policy in Cambodia requires educators to undergo training for 4 years to be able to become Health Educators. The textbook called "Health Education" with "Health Room" that launched this year with some schools and NGOs like GIZ, UNICEF, and PLAN International are funded to provide additional materials to the temporary health educators who are the Moral, or Biology teachers who are passionate enough to teach at the moment with the piloting program. We are talking about challenging the status quo, that is the reason we also develop our own materials that include all the body parts and sexual information which considered sensitive and are being censored by the government. We make a gentle push through NGO partners and those who funded the Health Department of the Ministry of Education to influence and challenge the mindset that matters for students' health and rights. For example, this year for Menstrual Hygiene Day, we got a short-term consultant project with GIZ Cambodia to produce a short film (https://www.facebook.com/watch...) and a radio narration (https://wmc.org.kh/previous-pr...) called "First Periods" which intends for girls to relate to the first periods experiences, to encourage the new parenting way with periods matters for daughter and get the Minister of Ministry of Education to voice on advancing the girl's voice and rights. It was an amazing collaborative process in which we demanded the periods blood be seen online and on the Ministry of Education's social media page, after two weeks, they finally agreed and it has received really good feedback and the blood became the most memorable part whenever play in classes and circle. Playing the role of an outsider or youth group who produce result that genuinely care for society has given us the advantage of excusing ourselves to not abiding by the government culture and voicing our solutions according to our rights as the younger generation. 

The current members of the team are freelancers and young people around 23 years old except the lead person is a woman, 28 years old. They are the next generation that can relate to and understand their peers' needs. To create influence is to create something that is more relatable and close to their heart. As a lead person and a millennial, I practice listening to their point of view and allow them the freedom to design and voice their perception related to the issues and needs while bare in mind the reality of the society that I have experienced and as far as I know. To explain this dynamic, we currently undergoing branding and social media change, which are most the young team members' design and creativity. The illustrations of the booklet, and the narrative story of the "first Periods" are all the creativity of the younger generation, what I and my partners do is provide opportunities and communicate with the government to find a middle ground to make sure it gets out there and everyone compromises in a healthy way. The booklet that we developed is based heavily on several years of classes with the students and re-edits through time. My role is the observer, and I intend to bring in the right thing slowly, but surely, so it stayed for a long time. We are looking at the root cause of the problem, and what changes live, and our team believes that it is the right educational method. Education takes generations, but changes are guaranteed. 

We provide menstrual health classes to at least 1000 girls already in public school since 2019 and around 50 boys pilot this year. From the experiences, we are in collaboration with media and design freelancers, as well as NGO partners to re-edit the learning materials: booklet, the previous edition had been distributed around 2880 books through NGOs funded, 800 washable pads sewing kits, more than 25,000 single washable pads sold to NGOs, and customers (99% women). We also discussed adding learning materials in collaboration with media freelancers, NGOs, researchers, and experts and prototyping more environmental and health-friendly periods -product options to enhance the education goals we envision.

What I believe is anything you see as "NEW", the truth is it is the match of the needs of human existence that nobody has done yet and you happen to have time to do it. The technology we use is an assisting tool to widespread our solution, we decided to include Raspberry Pi for students to learn online and offline even if they can't access to the internet, a basic digital skill for students who lack resources. We also have a team member who used to try to develop the App for periods, and we wish to support her to continue if possible. Besides, it is the research process of making biodegradable sanitary pads in the future that needs lots of assistance from machines and technology to make it local and cheap. 

Next year, we want to complete our learning materials and booklet that verified accuracy by doctors and published for public schools, but also public in general. We are already in the process and will be testing the booklet with the class in Cambodia next year in April. 

We also wish to assist the collaborative research on periods poverty "whether periods affect girls absentee and if the workshop or teaching that we conduct effective? and in what way? Is there anything more we can find related to adolescent pregnancy and married young." with a researcher from CDRI-Cambodia Development Research Center published in the next year or the year after next year. 

We will start the prototyping biodegradable sanitary pads process with the NGO partner along with other prototyping products for Green Lady Cambodia at the moment. 

We wish to become a social entrepreneur even though the term doesn't exist in Cambodia, it is not anything new, the model already exists and we are building toward it. Once we reach the taxation profit, we will register. 

1 person as full-time, the lead person. The other 6 persons are freelancers. 

2017, Green Lady Cambodia started as a project with Green Lady Vietnam. Then we go independent in 2019, Green Lady Cambodia started to sell local washable pads and in 2021, we started to provide consultant services. 

So far, our content is for everyone and is in our local language. In our previous video if we have fund, we will have sign language in the video and our website on Wix can be voice read. Our booklet cover since the start represents gender diversity and includes disability even if it is still unfamiliar to the students and not required in the public school setting. Right now we are finding ways to understand more about disability for out and in-school students in order to write something about menstruation, and sexual and reproductive health more relevant to them and we are engaging those who work with the community directly to help us. In the past, we had only girls' class, and this year we are slowly making it into boys, or girls and boys together class by introducing the vagina and penis origami exercise, sewing washable pads, and other learning techniques to make them familiar and accept each other to break the barrier. We also made a secret box for them to ask deep questions or tell us their problems without having to reveal their identity. 

- We sell local washable pads and handmade soaps online, import menstrual cups for sale, and consignment in 3 stores. 

- We also provide consultant services to the NGOs like sewing washable pads for distribution and teaching classes in public schools with our developed learning materials and booklet. 

- We receive seed funding for business development, to implement projects and collaborative research-based. 

- We provide training for NGOs that want to train women to sew washable pads by our sewing lady. 

- We plan to strengthen what we have by developing better-existing products, prototyping new products, and creating more merchandise in the future. 

- We are improving our social media channels and also our website for more engagement with the existing customers.