What precisely is a dignity package? On the heels of Menstrual Hygiene Day, marked yearly on 28 Could, listed below are 5 quick info:
1. What’s a dignity package?
Responding to emergencies, UN companies act quick to achieve individuals in want, together with the UN Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN sexual and reproductive well being company, UNFPA. A part of what these and different support organizations do to assist is to distribute fundamental provides to keep up the well being and dignity of ladies and ladies. Many of those are included inside containers referred to as dignity kits.
A dignity package contains fundamental objects that girls and ladies want to guard themselves and preserve hygiene, respect and dignity within the face of disasters, warfare and different crises.
This stuff are all housed inside a backpack or easy-to-carry bucket.
2. What’s inside?
UNFPA’s dignity kits fluctuate throughout communities. The essential package accommodates 10 key important objects.
Kits can be customised with 39 completely different objects. In some settings, for instance, they might embody a scarf.
Usually, they comprise menstrual pads, bathtub cleaning soap, a number of pairs of underwear, detergent powder, sanitary napkins, a flashlight, toothpaste, a toothbrush and a comb.
Every of these things is catered to the particular wants of ladies and ladies in communities world wide.
3. Why is menstruation help important in instances of crises?
All ladies and ladies who’re menstruating want fundamental provides. However, in instances of disaster, these wants usually fall to the wayside.
So, UN emergency support operations have jumped in to offer them with the essential necessities. That features in warzones, disaster-affected communities and in refugee camps. In these sorts of disaster conditions, entry to fundamental items and providers is affected, so the UN tries to satisfy these wants.
Offering interval help can enhance well being, scale back gender-based violence and extra. Learn UNFPA’s explainer on 5 key explanation why here.
Be taught extra about how the UN company helps ladies and ladies in war-torn Gaza within the video beneath:
4. How do you get a dignity package?
UNFPA and UNICEF maintain prepositioned shares of dignity kits of their humanitarian warehouses.
For example, UNFPA provides could be delivered anyplace on the earth inside 48 hours.
UNICEF, which maintains the world’s largest humanitarian items warehouse positioned in Denmark, has kits readily available, prepared for distribution to crisis-affected areas.
The UN by no means fees beneficiaries for humanitarian support. So, the dignity kits together with different emergency help are free.
Watch how UNFPA reached out to ladies and ladies affected by the 2023 lethal earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria beneath:
5. Ending ‘interval poverty’
Key to UN efforts geared toward addressing the wants of menstruating ladies and ladies is elevating consciousness whereas stemming what is named “interval poverty”.
UN Women defines interval poverty because the “incapacity to afford and entry menstrual merchandise, sanitation and hygiene amenities and training and consciousness to handle menstrual well being”. It’s brought on by stigma, excessive prices of menstrual merchandise and lack of water and sanitation amenities.
Ending the stigma of menstruation is a part of UN efforts to boost consciousness in communities world wide, from The Gambia to Nepal.
Try this explainer video from UNFPA Nepal, with English subtitles, about dignity kits beneath: