Intern Update!

Spring 2009 as an intern at the FMF has been pretty amazing so far. I have done some really cool research so far. I was working on a proposal concerning women's menstrual hygiene in Southeast Asia. It was really interesting and reading some of the information about the lives of these women, and how as a Western woman I take for granted something as simple as menstrual products. Menstruation is a taboo in this part of the world, and women suffer because of it. Women use rags during menstruation and when they need to rewash them at night (becasue of the taboo) they run the risk of being raped. Something that I found interesting was that women in Southeast Asia find recycling extremely important. A middle class woman uses about 15,000 pads or tampons in her lifetime. Imagine the waste that creates, if there was a way to recycle or have re useable menstrual products, women all over the world would be much better off. Women in Southeast Asia don't have the luxury to just throw away used menstrual products, finding a way to recycle them is imperative. Doing research such as this has really opened my eyes.

On a lighter note, the other interns are working on lots of projects. We are all super excited about the National Young Women's Leadership Conference!! It is going to be a great time with all the amazing speakers and topics that are to be discussed. Ah! Super exciting! Everyone should sign up and volunteering is appreciated :)