Taarini Foundation: Artika Singh empowers rural communities by teaching about ‘Sustainable Menstruation’!
Started in 2018 for spreading awareness among menstruators, Taarini Foundation has also supported rural communities by teaching them the ways of making cloth pads.
Artika Singh witnessed goosebumps due to happiness when she heard from a community of menstruators in Murshidabad about their shift to cloth pads. The Murshidabad community is one of those rural communities with whom the Taarini Foundation, headed by Artika Singh, worked to spread awareness on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), sustainable menstruation, and reproductive health.
Offline workshop Though this was not the first time when Artika observed the positive changes in the communities, she was happy to see how her NGO had become a medium for the change. “Menstruators in Murshidabad started using cloth pads after we completed our workshops with them. It was and is a matter of pride for us,” the founder of the Taarini Foundation, Artika Singh said.
About Artika Singh
The roots of the Non-Profit Organisation date back to September 2018 when Artika was a fresh graduate in Anthropology from Hansraj College, Delhi, and was planning to work for the benefits of the rural and semi-rural communities. Always involved in projects meant for social work, she realized her calling in “working for menstrual hygiene” and established the Taarini Foundation in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, which is also the hometown of the 24-year-old.
“Initially, we used to identify a few people from the community at the end of our projects to teach them the ways of raising funds. We used to teach designing, operating machines and often provided them with the raw materials for making cloth pads,” Artika told while adding that the main aim was to make women self sustain by selling cloth pads within their micro-community.
The women, as Artika observed, were hesitant to talk about menstruation. “On realizing this, we also indulged ourselves in providing a safe space for these women where they could easily talk about issues related to menstruation,” she said.
Artika, who is also a trained on-field menstrual and sexual health educator, conducted various workshops for the communities in Saharanpur, Patna, Murshidabad, and Delhi, along with in-house doctors. She also organized sessions on reproductive health in schools, colleges and collaborated with various brands for the novel cause. As of now, Artika has worked with 5000 menstruators/young girls through various projects.
